Bay of Plenty butcher, The Snag Co. has won medals in the 2022 Great New Zealand Sausage Competition. The Snag Co. based in Mount Maunganui has won a gold for their Chorizo Verde sausages and a bronze for their Cuiabana and Calabresa sausages.

The successful sausages were announced at a special Sausage Mixer event this evening where butchers from across the nation gathered to find out who had taken out the top spot.

It was a tie for the supreme winners with New World Te Rapa in Hamilton and Zaroa Meats in Auckland announced as joint winners. The judges couldn't split New World Te Rapa's Pork sausage and Zaroa Meats' Aoraki Salami, instead crowning them both with the Supreme Award.

It's not the first time there has been a tie, but judges were unanimous that both sausages had all the qualities they were looking for to beat out over 530 other entries.

The journey to supreme status for the winning sausages has been a long and rigorous process beginning with an initial five days of category judging back in August.

The judging panel made up of a squad of butchers, foodies, chefs and industry heavyweights, whittled entries down to the top scoring sausages. From here, gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded in each category with the gold medallists then being re-judged against one another with the joint supreme winners both receiving the perfect score.

Competition judge, Felicity O'Driscoll of Cook The Books, said there were some really outstanding entries this year and whittling it down to the supreme winner was quite a difficult task.

Photo: Supplied.

'There were probably about 4 or 5 sausages that really stood out at the supreme judging, so there was much discussion and retasting on the day,” says Felicity.

'At the end though, it came down to some really fine details between the contenders with both winners deserving the joint title of supreme sausage maker.”

Fellow judge, Greig Buckley of Kai Foods says that the judges were looking for well-made sausages with the right combination of quality ingredients that will appeal to the market.

'All entries are judged on their aroma – both raw and cooked – appearance, texture and finally the most important – the taste,” says Greig.

'The joint winners had it all and should be very proud of the products they have produced.”

Kiwis will also know where to get the best burger patties and meat balls with these two categories turning out eight medal winning burger patties and three medal winning meatballs.

The announcement of New Zealand's top tasting bangers, burger patties and meatballs come just in time as Kiwi's across the country dust off their barbeques in readiness for the summer months ahead.

There is nothing better than throwing some great tasting snags on the barbeque to share with friends and family. Now Kiwis know where to get their hands on some award-winning snarlers to set their summer barbeques sizzling.