A VILLAGE farm's reject fruit has won a coveted food award.

Tendring Fruit supplies its apples and pears, grown in orchards in Wrabness and Great Oakley, to supermarkets.

But produce that is misshapen, or even just too big or small, is not classed as good enough for the shelves and faces being left to rot or is thrown away.

In 2014, the farm came up with a plan to press this reject fruit into a juice.

Emma McGregor, sales and marketing manager, said: "The pressing then was on a much smaller scale and we shipped it out to another farm.

"This year we bought our own press and we have changed the name to Cotchel as we are expanding outside of Tendring."

Cotchel Opal Apple Juice and Cotchel Topaz and Evelina Apple Juice have each been given a two-star Great Taste award, which means judges dubbed it outstanding.

Cotchel Braeburn Juice and Cotchel Conference Pear, Topaz Apple and Evelina Apple Juice were each given a one-star award.

"The Topaz and Evelina are red skin apples we use as pollinates," Emma added.

"They are great tasting but don't keep well you won't see them on the supermarket shelves.

"They were just binned before and it's daft."

Judged by over 500 food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs and producers, as well as food writers and journalists, Great Taste one of the most respected food accreditation schemes for artisan and speciality food producers.

Products are taken out of their packaging so the test is all about taste.

Emma said: "We are absolutely thrilled that, in our first year of pressing in-house, we’ve achieved an award for each of the four varieties we make.

"It was an incredibly steep learning-curve but at the heart of it all was the desire to make an amazing juice from unloved fruit."

There were 12,366 Great Taste entries this year and of those products, 165 have been awarded a three-star, 1,011 received a two-star and 3,171 were awarded a one-star accolade.

Tendring Fruit makes about 10,000 bottles of Cotchel juice a year, with stockists including Two Brews in Colchester, Park Cafe in Victoria Park in London and Farmdrop London.