Sweet paste of success

Tauranga's Heilala Vanilla has been named overall runner-up for its vanilla paste in the third annual Cuisine Artisan Awards.
Picked from a shortlist of 35, Heilala Vanilla was lauded as "simply the best" by the awards' judging panel.
Heilala vanilla beans are sun-dried in Tonga before going to home base in Tauranga to be made into extract, paste or syrup.
Heilala marketer Jennifer Boggiss said more than a year of research with Massey University went into perfecting the vanilla paste.