Following three rounds of public voting, Extra Mature Cheddar by Keen’s Cheddar in Somerset has been crowned the first ever People’s Cheese champion. During the live online final, broadcast on Friday 11 October, cheese lovers across the UK tuned in with their cheese boxes to taste, deliberate and cast their votes, before the traditional unpasteurised cheddar took the top prize.
This latest accolade for the Keen family reflects the enduring popularity of traditional artisan cheddar, coming over a century after production began at Moorhayes Farm in 1899. Five generations later, under the stewardship of George Keen, the family is still making cheese with raw milk from their 250-strong herd of Friesian cows – with Keen’s Extra Mature Cheddar matured for 18 months to achieve a moist texture and full-bodied flavour, with onion notes and plenty of tang.
Organised by The Real Cheese Project, People’s Cheese 2024 has been created to get more people eating and talking about Britain’s artisan cheese, with this year’s ‘Heritage Edition’ focusing on territorial styles. All named after the locations that they originated in, this group of traditional cheeses includes Cheddar, Stilton, Red Leicester, Caerphilly, Cheshire, Double Gloucester, Lancashire, and Wensleydale, with Dunlop also featured as a Scottish heritage cheese.
Rounds 1 and 2 took place at Chiswick Cheese Market, beginning with over 40 entrants into the nine categories. Hundreds of marketgoers took part and voted for their favourites during these early rounds, ultimately selecting the four finalists; Blue Stilton by Cropwell Bishop Creamery in Nottinghamshire; Extra Mature Cheddar by Keen’s Cheddar in Somerset; Mrs Bourne’s Cheshire Cheese by Bourne’s Cheshire Cheese in Cheshire; and Thelma’s Original Caerffili by Caws Cenarth in Carmarthenshire.
Friday’s virtual final was broadcast from Mrs Kirkham’s Cheese in Lancashire, and presented by comedian and champion of British cheese, Marcus Brigstocke, alongside The Real Cheese Project co-founder, James Grant. The pair were joined by experts including Jane Quicke from Quicke’s, Lucy Cufflin from Chiswick Cheese Market, Jonathan Pearcey from The Crafty Cheese Man, and Graham Kirkham from Mrs Kirkham’s Cheese, who guided the virtual voting panel through their tasting boxes, before everyone was invited to vote for this year’s People’s Cheese champion.
In September, The Real Cheese Project also launched a monthly subscription box, created to big up Britain’s artisan cheese community and get more people buying the good stuff. Inviting the curd curious to embark on a real cheese adventure, each Cheese Crowd box will come with a new cheese to try, a monthly cheese zine, a hand-picked pairing, a pin badge for new subscribers, and access to an online tasting to meet the cheesemaker.
5% of all profits will go into a Real Cheese support fund, which will be donated to initiatives that protect, develop and progress real cheese in the UK.
Find out more about the Real Cheese Project at www.therealcheeseproject.co.uk and about Keens Cheddar at www.keenscheddar.co.uk
