SINGAPORE - Six home-grown brands have been given the lauded Great Taste Award, which recognises artisan food and drink products from around the world.

Three of them are tea companies, Gryphon Tea Company and Pryce Tea, both of which are subsidiaries of tea-trading business Lim Lam Thye; and The 1872 Clipper Tea Co.

The other winners are marmalade maker Straits Preserves; rock candy brand Sweet Enchantment; and health food purveyor GTCL, known for its nuts and honey.

These six brands were also recognised in last year's Great Taste Award list.

The annual Great Taste Awards, which started in 1994, is organised by the Guild of Fine Food, which is based in the United Kingdom. The awards are widely regarded as the Oscars of the food and drink world.

Retailers can mark their award-winning products with the black-and-gold Great Taste label, which is seen as a reliable seal of approval. It helps the products stand out from other items on the shelves in supermarkets.

This year, a record 12,336 products were entered in the competition.

Of this, slightly more than 1 per cent, or 165 products, were awarded the coveted three-star (Exquisite) rating.

One of them is the Gryphon Tea Company's Monogram Jasmine Silk Pearls, which is made from downy silvery green tea from Fujian, China. It is the sole Singapore product that made the cut in the category.

Rounding up the winners, 1,011 received a two-star (Outstanding) rating and 3,171 received a one-star (Simply Delicious) rating.

Local products that received the two-star rating include Tropical Calamansi and Ginger Garden from Straits Preserves; Italian coffee-flavoured rock candy from Sweet Enchantment and cacao and coffee-flavoured pili nuts harvested from pili trees in the Philippines from GTCL.

The winners are selected by a panel of 500 judges, including food critics, chefs, restaurateurs, food writers and retailers, who blind-tasted each product over 50 days from March to early July this year.

For the complete list of winners, go to greattasteawards.co.uk