This is absolutely no reflection on the cheese, its taste or its quality. Just a realisation that you have eaten so much cheese that you really can’t take any more.
I love the International Cheese Awards! I look forward to it every year, and each year it gets better and better. Chairman Richard Paul and his committee do a fabulous job. This year, yet again, there was a record number of entries. I love the passion that’s displayed at these awards. It’s what makes this industry so great.
After a morning of intensive judging, the results of the many different classes are displayed, shortly after lunch. Grown men in suits (also known as dairy company executives) can be seen jostling with each other, pushing and shoving, to read the results and see how well they’ve done.
“Three gold medals” shouted two men in suits, leaping into the air and performing ‘high fives’ while still airborne.
As I left the awards event at the end of the afternoon, Milk Link communication director Will Sanderson could be seen in the show press office, hunched over a laptop with Hannah from Good Relations, Milk Link’s PR agency. The pair were no doubt working on a press release to inform everyone of the company’s performance.
By the time I reached the hotel, the press release had arrived telling us that the company had won 48 individual awards. Its Taw Valley Creamery in Devon had picked up a record 34 of those awards, of which 17 were golds. This is an awesome feat. No wonder Will was looking pleased.
You can read more about the International Cheese Awards at Nantwich in the next issue of Dairy Innovation magazine. In the meantime, I’m off to the hotel restaurant for an evening meal. I just hope they don’t tell me they have a particularly good cheese board.
Geoff Platt is editor of Dairy Innovation magazine. He’s also active on LinkedIn.
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