Good Afternoon Cheesy1’s,

After this week’s post I will be pulling back from the Waitrose 1 cheese reviews to make way for a British Cheese Awards Judging & Royal Bath & West review. So this week I wanted to bring the cheese which is being featured the most and it is the Duvel Belgium Beer Cheese. This is an unpasteurised cow’s milk that when in the vats it is mixed with a beer which has been made in Belgium for over 100 years. I must say  at this point that the cheese contains allergens which are GLUTEN, BARLEY, CEREALS and may also contains NUTS, PEANUTS and SESAME. I mention these because you may not notice these on the label.  This cheese is a newcomer and is made by Michael Van Tricht and has a distinctive hop character without the bitterness you would find in a pint. Before I had even tried this cheese I was personally unsure if I was going to like this but I was pleasantly surprised. It is a mild/mature cheese which is fairly young and I can tell this by the holes within the cheese which denote the curds that haven’t fully compressed together. The colour of a brownish yellow stems from the beer and the black wax rind adds a colour almost acting like the colour of beer.

In taste this is light & creamy and if it was just a cheese it would be fairly non-descript, but add the beer and it develops a savoury edge through hop and has a sweetness as well. This is a very easy cheese to eat but doesn’t pair well with fruits because I tried this and it was too sweet. I think with a cheese biscuit  or with chicken in a creamy sauce would work better as it has a  flavour to use with cooking. This cheese may not be to everyones taste but I think it will have a wide appeal to cheese eaters and is certainly worth a try.

So far I have been incredibly impressed with the new range of cheeses that Waitrose has introduced and I hope that it expands in the future to increase in size with more exciting cheeses. I look forward to bring you a review from the Bath & West next week.

The Cheesy1

#WaitroseCheesy1