Judges praised the cakes’ “clean and fruity flavour” and “wonderfully tender texture” as the UK date-snacking brand picks up its first Great Taste accolade.
Datekin, the UK date snacking brand, launched in Spring 2025, has been awarded a 1-star Great Taste 2026 accolade for its Date Filled Whole Wheat & Bran Cakes.
Great Taste is the world’s largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme. Every entry is assessed by a panel of more than 500 experts, including chefs, buyers, food writers and retailers, and products are judged purely on their own merit rather than against others in their category, with each producer receiving written feedback on what the judges found.
Of Datekin’s Date Filled Whole Wheat & Bran Cakes, the judges said: “Extremely pretty cakes, these have an interesting pattern and a toasted finish. The filling ratio was well balanced. On eating, it delivered a clean and fruity flavour with a hint of sweetness, and it would be delicious with a coffee or after dinner.
These attractive date cakes have a wonderfully tender texture and the judges appreciated that they were not overly sweet.”
The judges’ suggestion that the cakes would suit a coffee is one Datekin has already acted on. The range is stocked in over 150 independent coffee shops and retail stores across the UK, supported by a dedicated national account manager Lucy Hunnable driving distribution in the sector, with the 30g format built specifically for grab-and-go.
Meg Matthews, Head of Marketing at Datekin, said: “Since launching just over a year ago, we have always known we were onto something good, but having it recognised by a panel of this calibre has only deepened our belief in what we’re building. The Date Cakes are one of our most popular products and are the one you hand to someone who has never thought of a date as a treat – so for the judges to find them tender and not overly sweet is exactly what we set out to do. No compromises. Just good ingredients and great dates, done right.”
The cakes sit alongside Datekin’s core range of single-ingredient dates, handpicked and pitted in their own farms in Saudi Arabia, and its Date Balls range, made with only two to three ingredients. The brand was founded in spring 2025 on a simple premise: that snacking can be more natural and less processed without giving up on taste – a proposition that has found its moment as shoppers increasingly favour whole-food fibre over fortified alternatives. A Great Taste accolade inside the brand’s first eighteen months is early external validation of that thinking.
Datekin is available in store at Selfridges and online at H&B, Tesco Marketplace and Amazon, with packs priced from £1.99, alongside its growing presence in coffee shops and independent stores. Further listings will be announced later this year.
