The challenge is simple:
taste the cheeses and vote for your favourite.
Cheese lovers from all over the UK will participate in an online blind tasting of six carefully chosen cheddars. The challenge is simple: taste the cheeses and vote for your favourite. The winning cheese will be selected from “the People’s Choice” – the most favoured cheese from the six tasted.
This is your chance to try some of the best artisan cheddars in the UK and have your say on which one is the best. So what are you waiting for? Sign up today!
meet the challengers
Six of the Best cheddars.
Only One ‘people’s choice’
In the Great British & Irish Cheddar Challenge, you’ll get to taste six different artisan cheddars, each with its unique story. You’ll learn how the seasons, the grass, the cows, the makers, and the unique microflora in maturing rooms have influenced each truckle. And you’ll vote for your favourite to be crowned the nation’s favourite cheddar.
This is your chance to try some of the best artisan cheddars in the UK and have your say on which one is the best. So what are you waiting for? Sign up today!
how it works
A Step-by-step guide
Pre-order your tasting box.
Pre-order your tasting box containing six unlabelled artisan cheddars from participating cheesemongers nationwide.
Download the official tasting sheet.
Used by the expert cheese panel and producers to professionally assess each cheddar at the live event, download the official tasting sheet and taste along with the panel
Your blind-tasting box arrives.
Cheesemongers will be delivering tasting boxes starting from the 11th September – Tweet, post or share when you get yours. But, don’t eat the cheese before the big day!
- Six unbranded artisan cheddars
- Each cheddar is labelled 1-6
- Enough for four people to taste
live & Online
the big day!
At 7:00 on September 16th, comedian and cheese judge Marcus Brigstocke, with a panel of cheese aficionados and cheesemakers, will host an online event where attendees will taste the cheeses and vote for their favourite cheddar.
people’s Choice award
and the winner is…
The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be announced live and online at 3.15 pm on Sunday the 16th of October during the Big Cheese Weekender.
Cheddar is the nation’s undisputed big cheese, but we want to challenge people’s palates and perceptions in order to safeguard the future of those making it according to time-honoured principles. While supermarket cheddars seek to satisfy the masses with a generic flavour profile, our artisan cheesemakers are producing incredible and varied wedges using recipes, techniques and cultures going back decades and even centuries.
James Grant | Founder
Great British & Irish Cheddar Challenge
Participating cheese shops
order your tasting box cheddars from any of the following:
| Wendover | No2 Pound Street | Order Online & In Store |
| London | La Fromagerie | Order Online & In Store |
| National Online | Pong Cheese | Order Online |
| Online and Events | Field & Orchard | Order at Events |
| Newcastle | Grate Newcastle | Order Online & In Store |
| York | Love Cheese | Order Online & In Store |
| West Yorkshire | Goo Cheese Shop | Order Online & In Store |
| West Country | The Truckle Truck Online | Order Online & Events |
| Bristol | The Bristol Cheesemonger | Order Online & In Store |
| Cheltenham | The Cheeseworks | Order Online & In Store |
| Cheshire | Godfrey C. Williams & Son | Order Online & In Store |
| Gloucestershire | The Forest Deli | Order Online & In Store |
| East Sussex | The Cheese Hut | Order Online & In Store |
| Manchester | The Cheese Hamlet | Order Online & In Store |
| Sunderland | Fat Unicorn | Order In Store |
| Berkshire | The Pangbourne Cheese Shop | Order Online & In Store |
| Leeds – West Yorkshire | George & Joseph | Order Online & In Store |
| Clitheroe – Lancashire | Georgonzola | Order Online & In Store |
| Online – National Delivery | The Cheese Geek | Order Online |
why GET INVOLVED?
Do you think you know cheddar? Think again!
With artisan cheddar accounting for only 3% of cheddar sales in the UK, most people have never tried it. But artisan cheddar is a different breed of cheese. It’s made with care and attention to detail, using traditional methods and local ingredients. The result is a cheese that is full of flavour and character.
The Great British & Irish Cheddar Challenge invites cheese lovers to challenge their perceptions of cheddar by tasting some of the finest artisan cheddar ever made. So what are you waiting for? Join the Great British & Irish Cheddar Challenge and challenge your perceptions of cheddar today!
