Hello Clevedon!
Mount Eliza Cheese now has a stall at the Clevedon Village Farmers’ Market. We’re there every Sunday 8:30 to 12pm, so come and see us: Clevedon Showgrounds, Monument Road, Clevedon.
2010 Cheese Awards
The annual New Zealand Cuisine Champion of Cheese Awards were held in February 2010 in Auckland. We submitted three of our cheeses for the competition and much to our delight came away with a medal for each of them.
Gold Medal
A gold medal was awarded to our Red Leicester.
Don't mistake ours for simple coloured cheddar or smoked cheese!
Ours is the only authentic clothbound Red Leicester made in New Zealand. That makes our Red Leicester in fact one of only two in the world.
It is smooth and melty in the mouth with nutty-sweet and intriguing flavours, quite distinct from any other cheese … stunning on a cheeseboard and looks great teamed up with a blue.
Here's a bit of Red Leicester trivia:
Red Leicester first appears in records in the Seventeenth Century, when the county of Leicester established its cheesemaking independence from the Cheshire-producing counties.
Today, there are many versions of Red Leicester cheese mass-produced for supermarket consumption, but only one traditionally made Red Leicester is still produced in the UK – on Sparkenhoe Farm near Upton in Leicester.
Originally Red Leicester was coloured with saffron, beets or carrot – today we use annatto, a South American berry extract to give the natural and beautiful orange colour.
Silver Medal
Mount Eliza's Farmhouse Cheddar has finally come of age, having been released only this year.
The endorsement of a silver medal was a great accolade. We are serious about our cheddar and have literally been watching and waiting over it for years.
Farmhouse Cheddar is sweet, earthy and rustic with none of the retained-whey soapiness that you get with other cheeses that have matured in plastic. Our Cheddar has a beautiful natural rind and the perfect moisture balance and texture that you only get with cloth-ripening.
Some Cheddar trivia:
Cheddar cheese originated from the village of Cheddar in England. It was made from at least the 15th Century, but records go back as far as 1170.
Originally cheese had to be made within 30 miles of Wells Cathedral to be able to be called Cheddar.
In his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, published in the 1720s, Daniel Defoe describes the cheddar as "without all dispute, the best cheese that England affords, if not, that the whole world affords".
King Henry II purchased 10,240lbs of Cheddar in 1170 at a farthing per lb (that's 4644kg at a total cost of $25.00).
When Charles I was on the throne, demand outweighed supply so much that you could only get Cheddar at the King's court, and even then you had to pay before the cheese was made.
Scott of the Antarctic took with him 3500lbs (nearly 1600kg) of Cheddar made in Cheddar on his famous expedition in 1901.
And another Silver Medal …
If you like something tarty, flaky and a little salty, then Mount Eliza's medal-winning Cheshire Cheese is a timeless classic.
The history of Cheshire cheese goes back around 2000 years. Cheshire is the one of the world's oldest known cheeses. The Romans made it. Captain Cook took it with him on his voyages.
Mount Eliza Cheshire has that beautiful tanginess and flaky texture dear to Cheshire cheese lovers, but is also reminiscent of the famous Wensleydale hard crumbly cheeses.
It's no secret …
Mount Eliza's Cheshire-born cheese-maker, Chris Whalley, was so inspired by the famous Wallace and Gromit Wensleydale cheeses that he spent some of his early cheesemaking time working at the artisan creamery in Hawes, Wensleydale.
To all those Wallace and Gromit fans out there …
‘More cheese, Gromit?’