Six butchers from Cheshire and the surrounding areas have made it to the final of Taste Cheshire's annual competition, but was your local among them?

For 15 years, butchers from Cheshire, North Wales and the Wirral have gone head-to-head to compete for the titles of Best Plain Sausage and Best Flavoured Sausage.

This year it was the turn of S.J Bebbington (Chester), Muffs of Bromborough and David Joinson Quality Meats (Chester) to go to the grand final for Best Plain Sausage. Progressing from the Best Flavoured category were Chestnut Meats (Nantwich) for their Pork and Tomato entry, Muffs of Bromborough for their Millennium Sausage, and Pen-y-lan Pork, for their Spiced Mango, Lime and Coconut.

A panel of 6 judges, led by chairman and four-time winner Steve Vaughan, included Tori Hayes from Taste Cheshire, and Izzy Grey of We Love Good Times. Amanda Cope from Made in Northwich, restaurateur and owner of Popcorn, Steve Davies and Jeff George from the University of Chester's NoWFood centre also took part in the blind taste testing.

Chester and District Standard: Judges deliberated over the finalists for both plain and flavoured categories, with the final to be held next month.Judges deliberated over the finalists for both plain and flavoured categories, with the final to be held next month.

Festival organiser, Briony Wilson said: "We are so lucky to be back at the NoWFood centre with our sausage specialists. The last two years, Covid has prevented us from running this much-loved element of the festival and it’s such a wonderful way to showcase our incredible local produce.

"The butchers who enter are top notch and there were some really close scores. We can’t wait to see who the public choose as overall champions."

Taste Cheshire's Tori Hayes said: "We would like to thank all of the local butchers who got involved. This year in addition to the brilliant quality we had a real mixed bag of entries particularly in the flavoured categories, ranging from pork and herbs to Kimchi and even Honeycomb.

"This shows the true spirit of this competition, and it’s great to see how the butchers get inventive and have fun with their flavours."

The final will be held on Sunday 17 April at the Chester Food and Drink Festival and is voted for by 40 members of the public.

Further information about the festival, and the final, can be found here.