Artisan cheesmaker Shepherds Purse is celebrating making history by winning two category gold awards at this year’s Virtual Cheese Awards.
It is the first British cheese producer to win two categories – Best Artisan Soft and Best Blue – at the awards since it launched in 2020.
The Virtual Cheese Awards is the world’s only cheese awards that connects expert judges through Zoom and broadcasts the feedback live online for all to see.
This year, more than 200 British cheeses were entered into the fifth year of the awards which represented a variety of cheese categories.
The judges confirmed Buffalo Blue as the Artisan Soft Cheese category winner describing it as having an “aroma that is clean and rich which makes you want to dive in. It has a great mouthfeel which is deceptively light and smooth plus it has a rich and creamy taste”.
Yorkshire Blue topped the Blue Cheese category with the judges describing it as “creamy but with a real hit of blue – it is not for the faint-hearted but a brilliant blue that is big and gutsy with plenty of flavour with a slight twang of bitterness at the end”.
Its cheeses also won two class golds in the first round of the awards – Buffalo Milk Soft and Soft Blue – as well as three Class Bronzes for Harrogate Blue, Organic Yorkshire Blue and Mrs Bells Salad Cheese.
Caroline Bell, joint managing director of Shepherds Purse, which is based near Thirsk, said: “We’re delighted to have won not one but two of the category golds at this year’s Virtual Cheese Awards.
“They are prestigious, very well respected and sought after awards in the cheese industry so we are thrilled with our wins.”
Sarah de Wit, co-founder of the Virtual Cheese Awards and Cheese & Dairy consultant, said: “The Virtual Cheese Awards offer unique behind-the-scenes insight into British cheese from some of the UK’s finest cheese experts, which is enthralling and informative in equal measure.
“The standard and variety of British cheese in this year’s awards was superb and we’re thrilled that Shepherds Purse were category winners twice over.”
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