This is a rich, pasteurised, sophisticated BLUE cows milk cheese created by Alex James, former band member of BLUR, turned cheesemaker in collaboration with Judy Bell. Alex James stepped away from his Rock ’n’ Roll lifestyle in 2003 for a 200-acre farm in a small village located between Chipping Norton and Stowe-on-the-Wold where he converted his stone outbuildings into cheesemaking rooms. James is passionate about cheese and fluent on the subject.
Blue Monday has won several awards including Gold at the British Cheese Awards 2017 and Silver at the World Cheese Awards in 2019.
Blue Monday is matured for a minimum of 12 weeks. This unique blue develops a wonderfully soft, mellow and creamy texture, with a faintly sweet, intensely savoury, spicy, rich and complex flavour. The cheese has bold cracks and blue streaks with a thin natural rind. The rind is edible with notes of herbs and minerals.
Blue Monday is now made by the very skilled team at Shepherds Purse in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. Having started by making cheese only from sheep’s milk, they extended their range to include cow’s milk and even water buffalo milk cheeses, Judy Bell and the team at Shepherds Purse have grown organically over the years.
Today, they are best known for their blue cheeses, Yorkshire Blue and Harrogate Blue, which won Super Gold at the World Cheese awards and named in the top 15 cheeses in the World! Shepherds Purse remain a proud, independent family business, making cheese in the traditional way on their farm in North Yorkshire. The team is now made up of 35 passionate artisans being led by Judy’s two daughters Katie and Caroline.
This cheese makes amazing blue cheese sauce for a steak, or just as a big chunk on some Lincolnshire Plum Bread with some quality Jersey butter.
Please note all cheeses are hand cut, therefore the weights listed are approximate. We work very hard to cut them as accurately as we can!
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.