A Taste of Bury St Edmunds and Suffolk

Marimba is a family-owned business devoted to hand-making amazing chocolate right here in Bury St Edmunds.

Discover a full range of handmade truffles, single-origin bars, Easter eggs and Christmas treats (seasonally, of course) and delights such as dipped marshmellows, caramel pretzels and giant buttons. 

Marimba's chocolatiers also make no added sugar varieties of bars, white, milk and dark buttons, and novelties.

The Greene King Shop inside Greene King Beer Cafe stocks a full range of Greene King and Belhaven beers. Perfect for presents or stocking up the fridge!

Choose from Abbot Ale - named after the Abbots of Bury St Edmunds Abbey, Level Head - named after St Edmund who lost his head, Wolfpack Beer - called after the wolf that looked after Edmund and many more. They also sell gluten free and low alcohol beer.

Edmunds cocktails, founded in Bury St Edmunds, are hand blended, bottled and labelled in-house with skill and care.

Choose from 100ml or 1 litre bottles of cocktails including Cosmopolitan, Passionfruit Martini, Expresso Martini, Chambord Bramble, Amaretto Sour, Old Fashioned, Pink Grapefruit Margarita, and more.

You can find Edmunds cocktails in Adnams, Lisa Angel and The Food Museum.

Established in 2018 by Karen and Martyn Luke, Heart of Suffolk Distillery is a family-owned venture based in Bacton, just down the road from Bury St Edmunds.

They specialise in crafting three exquisite London Dry Gins: Betty's - an award-winning gin, Rosie's and Ivy's Best London Dry Gin, Judges’ Choice, alongside limited edition liqueurs. You can visit their Heart of Suffolk Distillery Shop.

Adnams is based on the Suffolk coast in Southwold but has a shop in Cornhill, Bury St Edmunds

They produce a range of beers to suit every taste, from their famous Ghost Ship, a Stout to write home about, to Kobold, a crisp English Lager.

The multi-award winning independent brewery and distillery Nethergate is based just down the road in Long Melford but has a shop in Bury St Edmunds.

Pop in to discover crisp whites, warm reds, delightful fizz. There's also a bar downstairs and upstairs to enjoy Nethergate's wines and spirits.

At Vino Gusto you can also find fizz from Burnt House Vineyard near Stowmarket.

The Cheese Hole in Hatter Street stocks fine quality, artisanal and many award-winning cheeses from the British Isles and the Continent cut-to-order.

Cheeses include Baron Bigod, perhaps Suffolk's most famous cheese. Made at Fen Farm Dairy in Bungay, Suffolk, it is the finest traditional Brie-de-Meaux style cheese produced in the UK and one of only a handful of its type in the world to be made by the farmer on the farm.

Beneath the nutty, mushroomy rind, Baron Bigod has a smooth, silky golden breakdown which will often ooze out over a delicate, fresh and citrussy centre. Baron Bigod is made by hand in small batches, very early in the morning so that we can use the fresh milk straight from the cow.

Named after Baron Hugh Bigod, a rogue nobleman and descendant of the powerful French Bigod family. The Bigods arrived on British soil from Normandy in 1066 with William the Conqueror and were subsequently granted extensive lands and titles as a reward for helping the new king achieve a successful conquest.

Hugh Bigod inherited Bungay as part of these estates in 1120 and set about building Bungay Castle.

Raedwald cheese, also made by Fen Farm Dairy can also be found at The Cheese Hole. Rædwald (pronounced Redwold) is Fen Farm Dairy's Suffolk take on a traditional French Reblochon. It has the crunchy, toothsome rind and smooth oozing paste of a classic Reblochon, but the flavours are a deeply Suffolk experience. This is a cheese to be eaten sat on a log by a campfire, in the dappled shade of a Suffolk woodland. It speaks of briney sea air, smokey bacon, hazelnuts wet from the shell, hidden fungi, mossy bark and the cool weight of woodland air.

Rædwald was the Anglo Saxon king of early Suffolk and Norfolk between 599-624AD. His story is shrouded in mystery but archaeologists believe they may have found his tomb at the hauntingly beautiful site of Sutton Hoo on the nearby Suffolk coast. Buried in a grassy mound in a field, a beautiful timber longship, weapons and jewels fit for a king, items gifted from far-flung lands and the remains of an ornate battle helmet. The helmet has become the iconic symbol of King Rædwald and was the Dairy's inspiration for the logo of the Rædwald cheese, drawn by artist Gemma Wiseman.

You can sample and buy Baron Bigod and Raedwald at The Cheese Hole. Also look out for Suffolk honey, a great gift to take home.