General News
24 September, 2025
Award-winning syrups
GREAT Ocean Road Cordial Syrups has come away from the Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards 2025 with three shiny new medals and owner Anne Rosolin couldn’t be happier.
From humble beginnings on farm, Mrs Rosolin said the business came about by chance when offering drinks to guests on farm tours.
“I started in 2021 with farm tours, because there was a gap between people knowing what went on in a farm and ones who don’t,” she said.
“It was geared towards tourists coming down the Great Ocean Road.
“We had local produce, I made butter and scones.
“I did the cordial syrups as a drink and they were wanting to buy the syrup to take home which was not something I thought was going to happen.”
Mrs Rosolin said she had the idea to begin selling the cordial syrups at markets.
“I already had a good base family recipe from grandma’s days and worked out how to do that in a semi-commercial fashion,” she said.
“I made the lemon, lime and orange flavour and took 50 bottles of that to the Warrnambool fresh market and sold 30 of them.
“I went and booked myself into other markets, bought myself a cold press juicer for juice extraction and found other local suppliers.
“I try to keep my ingredients from in the area as much as I can, otherwise, Australian grown.”
Great Ocean Road Cordial Syrups has now branched out to 16 flavours, specialising in unique combinations and the occasional seasonal offering.
Last year Mrs Rosolin entered and won two medals at the Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards. She went for it again this year with three of her syrups and came back with another three medals.
The flavour rhubarb and strawberry won silver, with orange and lemon myrtle and coconut and pineapple both winning bronze.
Out of 170 producers and 870 products, Mrs Rosolin said she was “quite stoked” to win medals for all three of the products she entered.
“It’s very rewarding knowing that the people there have a high opinion of what you do,” she said.
“Knowing too that you’re up against quite a lot of producers and some have been around for years, then there’s people like me that have only been around for a handful of years.
“It makes your hard work worthwhile.”
For those hoping for another new cordial flavour, Mrs Rosolin said the pressure was on – but creating new flavours is one of the things she loves most about running her business.
“It’s got to the point where people are asking when I’m bringing out a new flavour,” she said.
“That’s putting the pressure on – they’ve got 16 to choose from already.
“It’s good because it keeps me fresh and keeps me interested because I’m always challenged to bring out something different.”
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