The Tesco Cheese Challenge

The Tesco Cheese Challenge - In 2007 the Tesco Cheese Challenge celebrates its fifth birthday

Winners 2008


Overall Winner
Category Winner – Hard Cheese

Bestbier for Cheese – Bestbier Crumble

Eddie Bestbier, the founder of Bestbier Cheese, has brought his 20 years of experience as a cheesemaker in Holland, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and Australia into effect to create Bestbier Crumble, the overall winner of the Tesco Cheese Challenge 2008.

Bestbier Crumble is a hand-made, natural rind hard cheese with a crumbly, creamy texture and a clean, rounded taste. It is a highly attractive cheese with a pale straw colour.




Sheep and Goats Milk Cheese

Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses – Coates Blue

The Butler family has been making farmhouse cheese at Wilson Fields Farm by the foot of Beacon Fell in Lancashire for over 70 years.  The milk they use is sourced exclusively from 12 farms within a 10-mile radius of the dairy.

Their winning cheese, Coates Blue, is a soft, blue-veined cheese which is matured for up to 8 weeks, giving a delicate creamy blue flavour with a silky texture that becomes slightly peppery with age




Flavoured Cheese

Ashley Chase Estate Ltd – Dorset Red

Ashley Chase Estate makes their cheeses on their farm in Litton Cheney, Dorset, using locally sourced milk. Their commitment to traditional methods of Cheddar cheesemaking has been recognised with PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status.

In Dorset Red, they have created a cheese which draws attention with its deep amber core and dark smoked rind. It has a distinctive waft of oaky smoke and a slightly open and smooth texture, not quite as firm as Cheddar.




Blue Cheese

The Cumberland Dairy – Blengdale Blue

The Cumberland Dairy Ltd was formed by three Dairy farmers based in the Eden Valley who are passionate about producing special cheeses from their own high quality milk. In keeping with their commitment to their local area, their first cheeses have been named after local villages or beauty spots in Cumbria.

Blengdale Blue is a distinctive soft blue cheese, based on a traditional farmhouse recipe. It has a creamy texture with a distinct yet subtle flavour.




Soft and Fresh and Semi-soft and Wash Rinded

Cornish Country Larder – Cornish Character Brie

Cornish Country Larder is a family concern which has been built on using top quality local ingredients to make cheeses using traditional methods. Their winning cheese is produced at their Trevarrian Creamery on the Cornish coast.

Cornish Character Brie was created with the aim of producing a cheese with a rich, unpasteurised taste but using pasteurised Cornish milk. They have succeeded in producing a cheese with a soft creamy texture and rounded, mushroomy Brie flavours.