Cheese Fest

Archive for the ‘English’ Category

Flower Marie

Soft fluffy cubes of delight made in the little village of Golden Cross, Sussex.

Each Flower Marie comes individually wrapped in waxed paper, like a pat of butter. Inside is a soft, bloomy, white mould covered cube of cheese.

The outside has no real smell, save a slight mushroominess one would expect from a mould rind cheese.

The pate is a pale yellow colour and smells faintly of grass and milk. The texture is soft, creamy and fudge like with a light, delicate fresh flavour, with hints of grass and the sweetness typical of a ewe’s milk cheese.

It’s an inoffensive and well behaved cheese suitable for offering to guests, whose taste in cheese may be uncertain. Delightfully pleasant.

Produced by  Golden Cross Cheese Ltd.

Purchased from Cheese Please, Lewes.

Reviewed by Nick and Olympia, 2012

(3.5/5)

Waterloo

Just look at it! Oozy gorgeousness. It promises so much, but does it deliver?

Waterloo It’s delicately cornflour dusted rind, and gooey golden pate oozing out. This is an award winning cheese, consistently winning medals in the British Cheese Awards and twice winning a medal in the World Cheese Awards. It has absolutely no smell, which, for some might signal concern. The texture is divine: smooth, creamy and deliciously silky. The flavour is salty and slightly bitter. Other than that, there is nothing. Most disappointing

Lovely consistency, no real flavour. Despite it’s award winning status, we didn’t think much of it… a real shame.

Manufactured by Village Maid

Purchased from Cheese Please, Lewes

Reviewed by Nick & Olympia, 2013

(2/5)

Sister Sarah

Intolerant to cow’s milk, but don’t like goatiness? This is the cheese for you.

With its striking orange, annatto coloured rind and smooth, silky white pate this cheese is just so seductive.

Ahem… although it’s, normally… coated with annatto, (a bright orange natural colour, added to many orange cheeses, such as Red Leicester), the more astute reader may have noticed that our particular review piece is somewhat lacking in this feature..

Moving swiftly on, the pate is very white (ok, it’s not a good photo either), with an oily sheen and a mild milky smell.

The texture is deliciously soft and smooth, yielding sensually in the mouth.

Delicately milky and extremely satisfying. There’s a slight chalkiness and a very gently tangy spiciness that leaves a very, very subtle burning sensation, with hints of nuttiness and chocolate. Although this is a goat’s milk cheese, there is not even the slightest hint of goatiness.

It could be argued that the qualities of this cheese a so subtle that it could easily be dismissed as unremarkable. However, take the time to really taste and savour it and it becomes a very satisfying experience.

Produced by the High Weald Dairy

Purchased from Cheese Please, Lewes.

Reviewed by Nick & Olympia, 2014.

(4/5)

Somerset Chilli

We don’t tend to review reformed flavour added cheeses, but every now and again one comes along that’s worth a mention.

Reformed flavour added cheeses tend to be a mass production cheddar like cheese, that has been broken up into small chunks, mixed with some form of vegetation and then pressed back into a cheese shape. Most supermarket flavour added cheeses are made like this, and to be honest, are a bit “trick”.

This particular cheese appears to be based on a cheddar, with added green and red chillies and coated in cracked black pepper.

Hot, hot, hot! If you like spicy food, you’ll like this. It’s not so hot that you cannot taste the cheese, but it is hot enough to make your tongue burn and lips tingle. Strangely, the black pepper coated rind is actually hotter than the chilli laced interior.

To be truthful, it’s nothing special, from an artisan cheese perspective, but is included because it’s fun. If you have a known chilli-head coming to dinner, this will keep them happy.

In summary, like a Las Vegas showgirl, hot and fun, but not serious.

Produced by Somerset Cheese Company

Reviewed by Nick & Olympia, 2013

(2.5/5)

Wyfe of Bath

“Experience, though noon auctoritee,

Were in this world, were right y-nough to me,

To speke of wo that is in mariage;

For, lordinges, sith I twelf yeer was of age.”

-  Geoffrey Chaucer

From whence this cheese doth get it’s name… apparently.

Wyfe of Bath According to the manufacturer, like Chaucer’s tale, this cheese is like a taste of old England. It certainly smells, old.  It has this wonderful smell of old, damp stone, reminiscent of a church crypt. Formed in cloth lined baskets, the cheese is shaped like a large round soap bar, with a tough, leathery, orange / grey, natural rind. Inside, the pate can vary from a pale yellow to a light golden colour, with a firm but yielding, slightly rubbery, but creamy texture. The taste is initially quite sharp, with delicate hints of fungus and stone. The sharpness quickly melts away leaving a pleasing nutty, grassy flavour.

All in all a pleasant cheese to nibble on with a glass of red wine.

Produced by The Bath Soft Cheese Co.

Reviewed by Nick & Olympia, 2011.

(3/5)

Goodweald Smoked

Made by the Traditional Cheese Dairy in Stonegate, East Sussex, this smoked cheese looks the business with it’s lovely golden, orange colouration and the chequered patterning, from the wire racks it stood on during smoking. But…

…this was sadly disappointing. Now, it must be understood that I do enjoy a good smoky flavour, but there’s something not quite right about this cheese.

Its smell is remarkably reminiscent of vinyl (PVC) inflatable pool toys. That sort of sweet plasticky smell you get when you fetch the li-lo out of storage at the beginning of summer.

It is not unusual for cheese to have overpowering and uninviting smells, but the problem with this cheese is that it also tastes synthetic and plasticky.

This vinyl flavour came from the smoking process, as it was stronger around the extremities. Maybe we happened to have acquired a cheese from a bad batch, I don’t know, we haven’t tried it since.

It’s a real shame, the texture is smooth and satisfying, but the flavour is just wrong.

Produced by The Traditional Cheese Dairy

Purchased from Middle Farm, Lewes.

Reviewed by Nick & Olympia, 2013.

(1/5)

Tipsy Billy

Specially commissioned by La Cave à Fromage, one could possibly guess from the name that this is a goat’s cheese washed in some sort of alcohol… and you would be correct (though we seriously hope that “Billy” is only a general reference to goat rather than specific).

This starts life as a basic unpasteurised goat’s cheese made in the West Midlands. Then La Cave à Fromage snatch it away from its innocence and imbibe it with cider matured in whiskey barrels. It is then locked away in a dark, cool room for three to four weeks.

The results is rather spectacular.

The orangey coloured rind is very wet and sticky, with whitish cream pate, that darkens toward the edges.

The smell is like a delicate reminder of the boys locker room at middle school. Sweaty, but without the pungency puberty brings.

The texture thick and creamy, but the flavour consists of a whole list of adjectives: sweet, fruity, tangy, sharp, salty, goaty and perfumy. The latter being enhanced with a sip of white wine.

In conclusion, a very complex, but highly enjoyable cheese. Definitely one worth trying.

 

Produced by La Cave à Fromage

Purchased from La Cave à Fromage, Brighton.

Reviewed by Nick & Olympia, 2013

(4/5)

Wensleydale Blue

Most people will be familiar with Wensleydale. Very white, sharp, crumbly and often found in supermarkets, flavoured with cranberries or apricot. Few will know about the blue variety, fewer still will know that Wensleydale was once always blue.

In the 14th century when Cistercian monks settled in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, they started making cheese (as monks tend to do). Having come from the Roquefort region of France, the recipe they brought was for blue cheese. Somewhere in its history, it became the white cheese we are now familiar with. The blue version is now rare.

The rind is dark and gnarled, dusted in fluffy moulds. The pate is a pale yellow with dark blue veining.

Though the smell is not strong, it is somewhat reminiscent of old socks with a hint of blue.

It is quite crumbly, though not as much as its cousin, the texture is creamy and smooth. Though it may look fearsome, it has a very pleasant mild, blue flavour, with none of the expected Wensleydale acidity and a mellow lingering aftertaste. A bit Stilton like, but not as strong.

It looks a bit uncouth, but is actually very civilised.

Produced by the Wensleydale Creamery.

Reviewed by Nick & Olympia, 2012.

(3.5/5)

Cerney Vine

We came across this at the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival. It was attracting a lot of attention. A sweet smelling, wet lump, wrapped in soggy vine leaves, then neatly tied up with a raffia bow… Oh, and it’s washed in Brandy… which could have had something to do with its popularity. Cerney Vine Opening the cellophane wrapper the first thing that you notice is how wet it is. It is seriously soggy. It smells sweet and fruity, like medlar fruit and capers. The paste is a brilliant white with the same sort of texture as a Ricotta. The flavour is clean, fresh and sharp. There are definite hints of alcohol and fruit, but it dissipates quickly, leaving you wondering if it was ever there in the first place. Unusually for a goat’s cheese, there is no goatiness whatsoever. All in all a very enjoyable cheese with a definite element of the unusual.

Produced by Cerney Cheese

Purchased from The Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival

Reviewed by Nick & Olympia, 2013

(4.5/5)

Brighton Blue

Since we are located very near to Brighton, we couldn’t justifiably not review this… although it’s not actually made in or around Brighton, but instead, some twenty miles away, in Horsted Keynes. I guess, this is because no one knows where Horsted Keynes is, but everyone knows Brighton. No? – Well, walk directly south from London until your feet get wet

The rind is sticky, a shade or two darker than it’s ivory pate and flecked with white and green/blue moulds. The pate itself is quite sparsely veined with starkly contrasted grey/green/blue moulds.

The smell is a delicate combination of sweet milkiness and mould. The texture is crumbly, but with a smooth sticky butteriness.

Mildly blue, slightly acidic with a fresh sharpness a bit like a mild Caerphilly, leaving you with a salty aftertaste.

It’s pleasant and inoffensive, with enough bite to make it mildly interesting.

Produced by High Weald Dairy.

Purchased from Cheese Please, Lewes.

Reviewed by Nick &  Olympia, 2013.

(2.5/5)