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…