The Real Cheese Project invites public to vote for Britain’s Best New Cheese

The Real Cheese Project has revealed its finalists for ‘People’s Cheese 2025: Britain’s Best New Cheese’, sponsored by Chiswick Cheese Market, and is now calling upon cheese lovers to reserve their tasting boxes and join the public judging panel for the online final on Wednesday 24 September.

Hundreds of people took part in Round 1 of the competition at Chiswick Cheese Market on Sunday 15 June, where they tasted and assessed 20 newly launched cheeses from across the UK to select this year’s finalists. Reflecting changing tastes and attitudes among consumers, three out of four finalists are made with goat’s milk, while three of the four are also soft cheeses.

The Final Four features entries from England, Scotland and Wales, including Yr Afr made by Brad Cunningham at Wacky Wedge in Bethesda, North Wales, a Crottin-style lactic goat’s cheese produced using raw milk, as well as Ooh La La from Rory Stone at Highland Fine Cheeses in Ross and Cromarty, a soft and silky lactic cheese with a delicately textured geotrichum rind, made with cow’s milk and a little extra cream.

Two entries from the South West of England also made the cut, including Nanny Gwynn, a goat’s milk version of Cornish Brie from Philip Stansfield and the team at Cornish Cheese Co. in Liskeard, Cornwall, which is creamy, clean and fresh with a delicate hint of goat’s milk, and Redlap from Stone Tree Dairy in Dartmouth Devon, a hard, washed rind goat’s cheese, made using raw milk from Stone Tree’s own herd.

The live online final will be broadcast on Wednesday 24 September at 7pm, hosted by comedian and cheese fan, Marcus Brigstocke, along with The Real Cheese Project’s James Grant and a panel of experts. Following interviews with the cheesemakers and presentations from each guest, viewers will be invited to vote for this year’s Champion at the end of the show. To take part, would-be judges simply need to reserve their box, await delivery and tune in on the night.

Now in its third year, the ‘cheese awards of the people’ celebrated Cheddar in 2023 and then Britain’s Territorial cheeses in 2024, before launching ‘Britain’s Best New Cheese’ in 2025 to help showcase cheesemaking innovation in the UK. The competition’s mission is simple - to get the country’s best artisan cheese in front of more people.

The ‘People’s Cheese 2025: Britain’s Best New Cheese’ final tasting boxes are available to purchase now from www.therealcheeseproject.co.uk/peoples-cheese, priced at £40 per box, including delivery.

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.