This will be our first Christmas as vegans but not our first Christmas without a cheese plate. We were lucky enough to win a selection box of Tyne Chease in one of the official Mofo give-aways. As you can imagine we were very excited. We played them all up for lunch and tucked it, contemplating which ones to order for our Christmas cheese board.

We got a miniature wheel of each cheese. They are really small but once unwrapped and on the plate we saw how much cheese we really had. Gathering together our crackers, our knives and a notebook it was time to eat.

Original 

With all these amazing flavours it could be easy to overlook the original flavour. It’s soft, creamy and a little tart. It’s soft enough to spread but solid enough to keep it’s shape if you prefer.

Garlic

We had mixed reactions to the garlic. Kate thought it was too strong. I thought it wasn’t strong enough. It does have a nice flavour but it wasn’t our favourite.

Pink Peppercorn 

The pink peppercorn had a great amount of punch. It was bright, uplifting and zesty. It also looks absolutely amazing.

Ethiopian Spice

Beautiful! Perfectly spiced with a hint of smoke. There is a perfect balance of the spice topping and cheese.

Dill

Herby with a fresh, light taste. Makes me instantly crave a bagel to spread it on.

Za’atar

We didn’t enjoy this one as much as the Ethiopian Spice. It’s a little acidic, a little sweet and beautifully spiced.

Sun Dried Tomatoes 

This had chunks of sun dried tomato throughout which Kate found off putting. I though it gave the cheese a lovely umami taste.

Chilli

My favourite, but too hot for Kate. It’s hot and a little sweet. I think it’s delicious.

Mustard

Another difference of opinion. Kate didn’t think it had much of a mustardy taste. Probably a good thing as she doesn’t like mustard. I do like mustard and though it had just enough to give it a pleasing punch without being overpowering.

Smoked

My love of all the smoked things has been well documented. So I loved this cheese. Kate loved this cheese. It’s delicious.

All of the cheeses were amazing and we’re so glad we got to try then. So what are we going to do for Christmas? Probably put in an order for the smoked, Ethiopian spiced and pink peppercorn. Delicious.