I don’t think it’s news to anyone now that I love cheese. I recently started working on the PR account for the beautiful French Comté cheese in the UK, and I’m in my complete and utter element! At Christmas, one of my pressies from Tim was tickets to a cheese tasting class at Neal’s Yard. Earlier in the month we finally got to visit, at their location in Borough Market.
I’ve always loved Neal’s Yard as a brand and its gorgeous British cheeses, so I was excited to find out which ones we would be tasting. Our lovely expert explained that she had chosen what she considered to be the best cheeses that they were currently selling in the shop, telling us how one batch can often differ greatly from another, mere months or even weeks apart. I also didn’t really know how many cheeses we would be trying, but I was really impressed with the amount and variety. We were given a choice of wine or beer to have alongside the cheese. Tim and I opted for the pale ale – ‘The Kernel’.
These are the cheeses we tried:
Dorstone
From: Herefordshire
Made by: Charlie Westhead
Milk type: Raw goat’s milk
Rennet: Animal
Wigmore
From: Berkshire
Made by: the Wigmore family
Milk type: Pasteurised sheep’s milk
Rennet: Vegetarian
Greenham
From: Somerset
Made by: William and Caroline Atkinson
Milk type: Raw goat’s milk
Rennet: Animal
Baron Bigod
From: Suffolk
Made by: Jonathan and Dulcie Crickmore
Milk type: Raw cow’s milk
Rennet: Animal
Tunworth
From: Hampshire
Milk type: Pasteurised cow’s milk
Rennet: Animal
Berkswell
From: Warwickshire
Milk type: Raw ewe’s milk
Rennet: Animal
Kirkham’s Mature Lancashire
From: Lancashire
Made By: Graham Kirkham
Milk type: Raw cow’s milk
Rennet: Animal
Devon Blue
From: Devon
Made by: Ben Harris
Milk type: Pasteurised cow’s milk
Rennet: Vegetarian
Colston Bassett Stilton
From: Nottinghamshire
Made by: Billy Kevan
Milk type: Pasteurised cow’s milk
Rennet: Animal
After trying all of those, we were each able to choose our three favourites to have a bit more of, on a lovely little slate board, with biscuits and chutney. I went for the Greenham, Tunworth and Devon Blue.
We both loved the Greenham and Tunworth so much that we bought some to take home, taking advantage of the 10% discount they offer you as part of the tasting class. We haven’t tucked into them yet – they’re so good we don’t want to see them disappear, and we’re waiting for the perfect opportunity.
That had better come along soon though, or I fear I won’t be able to hold back and a midnight fridge raid might ensue…
