Shropshire Blue

This cow's milk cheese was first made in the 1970s at the Castle Stuart dairy in Inverness, Scotland by Andy Williamson, a cheesemaker who had trained in the making of Stilton in Nottinghamshire. The cheese was first known as 'Inverness-shire Blue' or 'Blue Stuart', but was eventually marketed as 'Shropshire Blue', a name chosen to help increase its popularity, despite it having no link to the county of Shropshire.

An alternative claim to the first production of the cheese, from the Shropshire-based company Westry Roberts, suggests that the cheese originated in the county that it bears the name of in the 1970s; an archived article from 1977 would appear to back up this claim.

A variant, called Ludlow Blue, is now also being made in the county of Shropshire in a small artisan dairy. Ludlow Blue uses carotene as a colouring agent rather than annatto, which makes the colour more yellow.

It is a blue cheese made from pasteurised cows' milk and uses vegetable rennet. The orange colour comes from the addition of annatto, a natural food colouring. Penicillium roqueforti produces the veining.

The cheese has a deep orange-brown, natural rind and matures for a period of 10–12 weeks with a fat content of about 48%. Made in a similar way to Stilton, it is a soft cheese with a sharp, strong flavour and a slightly tangy aroma. It is slightly sour but sharper than Stilton and generally creamier.

Advent Calendar 2025 5-24

Rather boring over the last few days (5-12) - herbs again (as on the day before), Gouda again, cheddar, red cheddar, cheddar, then Gouda for three days! Oh dear. Not good enough. The rest was no better. I'll try soemthing else next year.

Harrogate Blue

Harrogate Blue is matured for a minimum of 10 weeks, the optimum time for a cheese to develop a right depth of flavour and creaminess. It was launched in 2012 and has won a number of awards. It is produced by the company Shepherds Purse, which was begun by Judy Bell in the late eighties, and was the first cheese co-produced by her daughters, Katie and Caroline, after taking over the running of the speciality cheese company from their mother. It was judged to be the 11th best cheese in the world at the World Cheese Awards in London in 2017/18. Like all Shepherds Purse cheeses it is made with pasteurised milk and vegetarian rennet.

Blue Monk

Award winning Blue Monk is a soft, creamy, blue cheese made in individual pieces, around 230g in weight. They are made with raw cow's milk and are pierced twice and turned as they mature for up to 28 days before wrapping. They then continue to mature and soften as they age becoming softer and creamier with time. They are produced by Monkland Cheesemakers in Herefordshire.

Advent Calendar 2025 2-4

Day one's Edam has been followed by Gouda, red Cheddar and a cheese (seemed to be cheddar) with herbs. Very processed but a decent chunk each time. I'm enjoying it.

Advent Calendar 2025 - 01

I've got a new advent calendar thiis year which I started today - Edam behind the first door.

Christmas cheese?

Snowbell Noel™ Cheese

Type: Semi-soft, cave-ripened holiday cheese

Milk: A blend of cow’s and goat’s milk

Appearance:

Snowbell Noel is shaped like a small, plump bell—about the size of a large orange—with a snowy white, edible rind dusted in crushed, freeze-dried cranberry powder. Thin ribbons of green rosemary ash spiral around the outside like garlands.

Texture:

Inside, the cheese is pale ivory and marbled with tiny ruby specks of candied cranberry. The paste is supple and creamy near the rind but becomes luxuriously gooey at room temperature, almost like a Christmas fondue wrapped in its own rind.

Aroma:

A gentle mix of winter herbs, warm cream, and a hint of citrus zest. When cut open, it releases a cozy aroma reminiscent of roasted chestnuts and mulled wine steam.

Flavor:

First taste: Mild creaminess with a whisper of goat-milk tang

Mid-notes: Savory rosemary, subtle pine, and a warming hint of nutmeg

Finish: A gently sweet, fruity sparkle from the candied cranberries and a soft orange-zest brightness

The flavor profile is deliberately engineered to taste like a cheese plate and holiday dessert in one bite.

How it’s made:

The milk is infused with a slow-steeped blend of winter herbs (rosemary, bay, juniper) before culturing. During curd formation, tiny pieces of crystallized cranberry are folded in. After shaping, the cheese is dusted in cranberry powder and wrapped loosely in spruce bark strips to age for a month in cool, humid cellars.

How to serve it:

Let it warm on the table until it becomes spoonably soft.

Pair with warm gingerbread slices or toasted brioche.

Perfect with a spiced cider, a sweet Riesling, or hot chocolate (yes, shockingly good).

Optional holiday tradition:

Tap the top gently with a spoon - its “bell” shape gives off a satisfying soft thunk, signalling that Christmas can officially begin.

Vallage Triple Cream

This is a French brie-like rich and indulgent triple cream cheese with a decadent melt in the mouth texture and deliciously sweet, buttery taste. The cheese has a light bloomy rind that can be trimmed away to reveal a smooth, velvety centre. Such cheeses are made by adding extra cream to cow's milk, resulting in a very high butterfat content and a rich, buttery, and melt-in-your-mouth texture. Vallage is in the Champagne region of France but the word can be used more generally for such cheese.

Dragon's Breath

Native to the craggy, volcanic mountain ranges of the Ignilid people, this black cheese is a popular and potent delicacy. Visually, it is a striking, deep, matte black, its colour coming from a unique local fungus called Izoret. The surface is uneven and gnarled, like cooled obsidian.

The aroma is intense, reminiscent of a damp, volcanic mine - initially pungent and smoky, with a surprising hint of sweetness.

When served young, the cheese has a firm but creamy, slightly rubbery texture. With age, it hardens into a dense, crumbly stone, becoming increasingly sharp.

The initial taste is a powerful, sharp hit of intense, earthy flavour, quickly followed by a numbing, tingling sensation. Hints of charcoal, brine and a whisper of mountain herbs linger on the tongue.

Traditionally made from the milk of large, domesticated mountain bats, some producers now use goat or cow milk. The Izoret fungus is intentionally cultivated on the wheel, producing a natural antibiotic that allows for long-term storage, making it ideal for travellers and adventurers.

Consuming a large enough quantity can cause temporary paralysis, so it is only for the most seasoned connoisseurs.

Robiola Bosina

Robiola is an Italian soft-ripened cheese of the stracchino family. It is from the Langhe region and made with varying proportions of cow's, goat's, and sheep's milk. One theory is that the cheese gets its name from the comune (municipality) of Robbio, in the province of Pavia; another that the name comes from the word rubeole (ruddy) because of the color of the seasoned rind.

Varieties of robiola are produced across Piedmont from the provinces of Cuneo, Asti and Alessandria and into Lombardy. It is one of the specialties of the Aosta Valley. The taste and appearance of robiola vary depending on where it was produced. Varieties inckude Robiola di Roccaverano DOC/PDO and Robiola Lombardia and La Tur. Robiola from the Piedmont region is a fresh cheese, and is usually eaten on its own, or with a little honey.

Robiola Bosina is a square soft cheese made with pasteurised cow's and sheep's milk. "Bosina" refers to Bosia, a town in the Alta Langa area in Piedmont.

The cheese has a long history that is sometimes traced back to the Celto-Ligurian farmers of the Alta Langa: the virtues of cheese from Ceba (today Ceva) were extolled by the first-century Pliny the Elder in his Natural History but any identification of that cheese with the robiola of today must be speculative. However, in his Summa Lacticiniorum, the fifteenth-century dairy produce expert Pantaleone da Confienza did describe the manufacture, and praise the quality, of a cheese with this name.

Robiola is generally served as a table cheese, either alone or with oil, salt and pepper. It must be stored properly after being purchased, and will keep fresh for up to one month. Its tangy taste is attributable to being infused with the wild herbs on which the animals pasture. Robiola can also be used in cooking including famous Piemonte dishes such as risotto robiola and aglio robiola spaghetti among other dishes. Special care should be exercised in properly storing the cheese (do not wrap in plastic, as the cheese can "choke" and spoil). It is best stored refrigerated unwrapped in its crust or wrapped in paper, and used within a week of purchase.

Normandy Tomme

Normandy Tomme or Tomme de Normandie is a semi-hard artisan French pressed cheese from the Normandy region, known for its soft, melting texture, ivory-coloured paste and its fruity, nutty flavour with a hint of acidity. It is made from locally sourced, often GMO-free cow's milk, aged in cellars on wooden boards for several months, developing a thick, grey, rustic rind. Some speak of its mellow, buttery flavour with its subtle earthy undertones.This versatile cheese is excellent on a cheese board with cider, melted on toast or in recipes like gratins and tarts.

Navarra Smoked Ewe Cheese

Delicious award winning artisanal raw (unpasteurised) sheep milk cheese from Navarra in the Basque region of Northern Spain. A hard pale yellow cheese with a smokey richness that melts in the mouth.

Saval

I was in Aberystwyth again recently and I bought some Saval there. Saval is a rich, pungent and tangy raw-milk cheese made by Caws Teifi Cheese in Ceredigion. It is a rind-washed cheese, which gives it a lovely aroma and a creamy but dense and savoury taste.

Like most of Teifi’s other cheeses, Saval has won an impressive range of awards over the years, including Golds at the World Cheese Awards, and the James Aldridge Memorial Trophy for the Best British Raw Milk Cheese, often seen as the highest accolade in British artisan raw milk cheesemaking.

Caws Teifi was established by John Savage-Onstwedder and his family in the early 1980s and over the past 40 years has become one of the most highly awarded artisan cheesemakers in Britain. It remains a small scale family business, these days led by John’s sons Rob and John-James.