Perthshire jam firm sets sail on partnership with floating hotel Fingal

A Perthshire jam-making company is spreading itself further with a new partnership with Edinburgh floating hotel Fingal as part of National Afternoon Tea Week that takes place later this month.

Callander-based family firm Perthshire Preserves, which has been producing handmade jams, jellies, chutneys and marmalades with Scottish produce since 2010, has for the first time teamed up with Fingal, which was developed by the team at The Royal Yacht Britannia and is billed as Scotland’s only luxury floating hotel.

The jam firm’s owners Iain Mackenzie and Kate Thornhill explain that they both have a hotel background in food and beverage, with Mr Mackenzie also a former Merchant Navy Officer with Cunard Line.

Perthshire Preserves is providing the special new strawberry and Champagne jam as part of Fingal’s new afternoon tea menu, which will be served with buttermilk scones and clotted cream. It is hoped that the sweet treat will become a firm fixture on Fingal’s afternoon tea menu beyond National Afternoon Tea Week, which takes place from August 8 to 15.

Mr Mackenzie cheered the partnership, adding: “My Merchant Navy career spanned over 20 years, so I’ve spent much of my life at sea and still love seeing ships sailing to far-off destinations. One of my lasting memories of life on the ocean waves is serving afternoon tea to around 1,800 people on the Queen Elizabeth 2, a retired British ocean liner, which was also converted into a floating hotel.

“It now seems especially fitting to be teaming up with Fingal, as Scotland’s only luxury floating hotel and former Northern Lighthouse Board tender ship, which brings back so many special seafaring memories for me.”