A blue mould-ripened cow’s milk cheese from Yorkshire cheesemakers, Shepherds Purse, has successfully secured a place as one of 60 world class cheeses, judged by an international panel of cheese buyers, retailers and food writers.

Bluemin White, developed by Katie Matten in 2010 at the dairy of the family farm in Thirsk, has scooped the ‘Super Gold’ gong in the Specialist Cheesemakers class at this year’s World Cheese Awards, organised by the UK’s Guild of Fine Food.

16 finalists were then selected from the ‘super 60’ to discover the overall World Champion Cheese.

Yorkshire Blue, one of the dairy’s best selling cow’s milk blue cheeses was also awarded Silver in the British soft blue cheese class.

An established favourite, Bluemin White is no stranger to winning awards, picking up 3 stars in the Great Taste Awards 2013.

The 28th World Cheese Awards took place during the BBC Good Food Show Winter at Birmingham’s NEC, drawing entries from more than 25 countries, including New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Estonia and South Africa.

This year’s event attracted more than 250 cheese experts from 22 different nations who travelled to the NEC to judge all the cheeses on a single day, tasting more than 2,700 entries within a 1,100 sq m judging arena.    Cheeses were judged on rind, body, colour, texture, consistency and above all taste.

Katie Matten, director, Shepherds Purse said: “We are so proud to receive such a prestigious award for Bluemin White and for Yorkshire Blue to win too.  Bluemin White is fast becoming a firm favourite and is officially one of the top 125 tasty foods in the country and now a Super Gold standard cheese.  It’s fantastic to be recognised against all these incredible cheeses from around the world and to fly the flag for Yorkshire too!”

Farmers for five generations and cheese makers for 2, Shepherds Purse founder, Judy Bell decided to make sheep’s milk cheese after studying as a pharmacist and realising more and more people were being diagnosed with cow’s milk allergies.

Having steered her business for more than 25 years, Judy recently handed over the reins to daughters Katie and Caroline who continue to innovate and take the business forwards.  The dairy now employs 30 staff and makes a range of award winning artisan cheeses using local cow’s milk and ewe’s milk.

 

About The Author

Yorkshire's only dedicated food and drink website from Yorkshire Post Newspapers and its sister titles in the region. Showcasing everything Yorkshire has to offer from the fruits of the sea to the fields of the moors and beyond. It includes unbiased restaurant reviews by renowned food critics, recipes and 'how to' videos from some of Yorkshire's finest chefs and latest food and drink news and blogs from around our amazing county. And you can have your say either on the site or via our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Let us know what you think

comments