Perhaps you remember the ‘Pepsi Challenge’. I certainly do.
It was an extraordinary bit of marketing.
The idea was that when folk blind tasted both Coca Cola and Pepsi, they would express a preference for Pepsi - even if they’d previously thought that they preferred Coke.
Now obviously you won’t find either drink on our market, but I was reminded of the whole thing this week because of a story a customer told me.
She’d ordered one of Ross’ chickens and was looking forward to roasting it for Sunday lunch. And then, as can happen in families, it turned out that there were going to be more mouths to feed than she’d anticipated.
Caught on the hop, she quickly drove to the local supermarket and bought one of their common-or-garden chickens to make up the difference.
Back home, she roasted both birds in the oven at the same time.
Same technique, same temperature.
She took them both out, and served them to her family.
And there it was.
The difference.
Sudden, striking, and gob-smackingly obvious.
Ross’ chicken was rich, succulent and deeply flavoursome. The supermarket bird was dry, tasteless and bland.
I’ve often thought that it’s not really fair that that producers who raise chickens quickly, industrially, and cynically are allowed to call their chickens ‘chicken’.
Because that suggests to the consumer that it’s the same product as, for example, as one of Ross’ slow-grown, outdoor reared, organic Hubbbards.
And it just isn’t.
It’s an altogether different affair, as our customer and her guests discovered last Sunday.
And that’s just as true across all of our producers’ incredible meat, veg, dairy and beyond.
Side by side, the difference is simply overwhelming.
And that difference is Wylde.
Have a great Sunday,
Nick
PS - the market is open.
PPS - don’t forget to brine your chicken. It’s a game-changer.
