Webbs Garden Centre at Wychbold are holding a Foodie Sunday this week-end (18 May) – and the event will see the launch of a new cheese from Worcester-based Croome Cuisine.
In a competition jointly hosted by Webbs to find a new cheese flavour, Droitwich cheese lover Guy Jackson suggested olives and sun-dried tomatoes would be the ideal complement for the supplier’s Cheddar cheese.
Croome’s cheese-maker, Nick Hodgetts, picked Guy’s choice from more than 200 entries. Truckles of the new cheese have been made and will be unveiled at Webbs on Sunday, when customers will also be able to sample it.
Mr Jackson, category manager for Leisure Industry at Droitwich said: “The whole family are cheese lovers and we also love the Mediterranean culture and food. We often eat cheese with olives and sun dried tomatoes with chorizo and as Cheddar is the king of cheeses we thought it would make a great flavour combination.”
Mr Jackson is a fan of Croome’s Hereford Hop cheese and cites Webbs as a favourite weekend destination for him and his wife and two young children. “When I saw the cheese competition advertised I decided to enter as it involved all the things we love. I’ve never won anything like this before and the whole family is very excited.”
Webbs chairman,Ed Webb is sure the new cheese will be popular. “We had lots of interesting suggestions ranging from coconut and sprout and fruit cake to southern fried chicken and strawberries and cream – the competition really set tastebuds on fire!”
Nick Hodgetts said: "We were thrilled with the response we had and it was a difficult choice but we think Mr Jackson’s flavour of olive and sundried tomato is incredibly tasty and works brilliantly with the Cheddar to produce a delicious cheese.”
He added, “It was difficult to narrow it down but in the end, we decided the Mediterranean themed flavour is totally different to the anything we currently produce and we can see it selling well.”
In 2013 Nick made an exclusive cheese with figs and honey produced from bee hives in the gardens at Webbs. He says it has proved very popular with customers.
Above: Harry Hodgetts from Croome Cuisine, Victoria Peacock from Webbs Food Hall with Guy and Helen Jackson and twins William and Amelie, proudly holding the new cheese they helped to create.
