Niche Patisserie puts Oswestry on the culinary map with four Great Taste awards

Oswestry has a patisserie that is winning attention well beyond the Welsh border. Niche Patisserie collected four accolades at the 2025 Great Taste Awards, the scheme often described as the food world's Oscars, and its team says the recognition is a proud moment for the town as well as the business.

The patisserie picked up one-star awards for four very different products: its Dulcey and Sea Salt Fudge, its Raspberry Jam, its Seeded Loaf and its Rosemary and Confit Garlic Focaccia. Every entry at Great Taste is tasted blind by panels of chefs, buyers, food writers and retailers, so the awards are earned on flavour, texture and craft alone.

The judges' notes make for mouth-watering reading. The fudge was praised for a "silky, sweet and creamy mouthfeel", the jam for its "enticing aroma of fruity raspberries", and the focaccia was described as "a very handsome looking focaccia with a lovely open texture". The seeded loaf was called "a gorgeous loaf with generous number of seeds".

Niche is a family business. Executive Pastry Chef Adam Cleal, who was a semi-finalist on Bake Off: The Professionals in 2019, runs it with his mother Samantha. "My mum Samantha and I have grown this business from the ground up, so to see our work recognised on a national level is truly humbling," Adam said. "We're incredibly proud to be acknowledged among the best in the industry and proud to be putting Oswestry firmly on the culinary map."

The Great Taste stars were not the only honour of the year. At the 2025 Shropshire Chamber of Commerce Business Awards, the prize for outstanding customer service went to Niche Patisserie, a sign that the welcome is valued as much as the baking.

The business describes itself as Oswestry's only professional pastry team, and it trades from The Black Gate, a Grade II listed building in the town. Alongside patisserie and bakery counters it serves brunch, lunch, coffee and speciality teas, and offers the Niche Afternoon Experience for those who want to make an occasion of it.

Opening times, menus and details of the Niche Afternoon Experience are on the Niche Patisserie website, and the team shares news of seasonal bakes on its social media channels.