I tried the new 'guilt free' cheddar cheese now available in Booths - this is what I honestly thought
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Guilt free? Well, Golden Hooves is part of a British farmer-owned dairy co-operative aiming to change the way farming affects the planet, and raise awareness among shoppers.
They claim that their farmers have carried out a whopping 260,000 regenerative interventions on their farms this year - from encouraging plant and wildlife biodiversity to protecting the soil and maintaining living roots - and have secured a massive haul of trophies as well, including Golds at the British Cheese Awards, International Cheese & Dairy Awards, Virtual Cheese Awards and Global Cheese Awards.
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Hide AdAs well as this, the brand is launching an Augmented Reality (AR) farm experience., which can be accessed via QR codes on packs of its cheeses. This will allow consumers to explore under the soil, see the trees and hedgerows buzzing with wildlife, zoom in on grazing cows and find out about the importance of plant biodiversity, and all with no wellies required.


But what does it taste like?
I was sent two Golden Hooves cheddar cheeses to try - vintage and mature - both available to buy now for £4 each. I like my cheese - and it’s fair to say I’ve eaten plenty of it over the years - but was unsure what the difference was between the two types.
I tried the mature version first, which claimed to be ‘rounded and rugged’. That didn’t really mean much to me, other than I could imagine a farmer tearing a hunk of bread off and shoving a piece of this on top, in his tractor. Well, fanciful thoughts aside, the cheese was....nice but uninspiring. It was perfectly fine and a nice cheddar that would suit sandwiches and recipes, but in a market so saturated with cheddar, it was unremarkable.
I think I described it to a collague as tasting like ‘every cheddar I’ve ever eaten’. To compare it to something like Cathedral City would perhaps seem unkind, but actually, I don’t think it is. To be compared favourably to a market-leading brand is pretty good going for a young and revolutionary product. And the vintage? Very much the same, apart from I thought the taste was milder, and not at all crumbly as it suggests on the packet.
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Hide AdSo, if you’re in the market for a solid cheddar and want to save the planet while you’re at it, this is for you. If you’re after something that challenges your tastebuds (but who buying cheddar is, really?), then look elsewhere.
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