Cheese of the Week - Barkham Blue

Two Hoots Barkham Blue

Two Hoots Barkham Blue

Barkham Blue from the Two Hoots Dairy in Wokingham is a most exceptional cheese.  It is so rich, soft and creamy you can spread it on a cracker when it has warmed up to room temperature.  This is made from Channel Island milk - a mixture of Jersey and Guernsey milk - which gives it that richness and also a wonderful golden colour to the paste.  The rind is beautiful, mottled greyish and shaped like a fossil, quite like the ammonites that you can find in profusion on the beach round Lyme Regis.  It is usually well decorated with a network of bluey-green veins

It is not an aggressive blue, it has a delightful tang but it is quite acceptable to those who are not too keen on stronger blues like Stilton.  This lack of harshness make it extremely popular with ladies.  It goes particularly well with a lighyter red wine such as a Beaujolais and is also ideally paired with a good cider.

Introduced in 2003, it quickly started winning prizes and has now become one of Britains most highly awarded cheeses; here is alist of it's achievements :

Gold - British Cheese Awards 2003
Gold - World Cheese Awards 2003
Best New Cheese -World Cheese Awards 2003
Gold - British Cheese Awards 2004
Bronze - British Cheese Awards 2006
Dairy and Ice Cream Category Winner
Waitrose Small Producers Awards 2006
2 Golds - British Cheese Awards 2007
Gold - British Cheese Awards 2008
Best Blue Cheese - British Cheese Awards 2008
Best English Cheese - British Cheese Awards 2008
Supreme Champion - British Cheese Awards 2008
Gold - World Cheese Awards 2008
Best Blue Cheese - British Cheese Awards 2011
Super Gold - World Cheese Awards 2011