Cows Creamery of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, has a record-setting 12 nominations for its cheeses in the 2018 Canadian Cheese Awards, the biggest cheese judging and competition in the country. Two years ago, Cows Creamery won Canadian Cheese of the Year honours with its Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar.
Avonlea is again a contender for the prestigious award but competition is stiff from cheesemakers in Québec and Ontario.
Judging by a jury of 14 cheese experts took place at University of Guelph, Department of Food Science. A total of 117 finalists were selected from the 375 cheeses entered by producers from Newfoundland to British Columbia.
The 2018 Canadian Cheese of the Year and champions in 33 categories will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on June 6 at St. Lawrence Market in Toronto followed by an Awards Tasting Gala. The next day, winners will be featured at Canadian Cheese Expo for the trade followed by Canada's first Artisan Cheese Night Market open to the public.
Information on the program and tickets is available at CheeseAwards.ca.
A complete list of finalists can be seen and downloaded as a Word document here:http://www.cheeseawards.ca/finalistsfinalistes2018/
Fifty-six of the 117 nominations went to 22 Québec cheese producers led by Fromagerie La Station, 7 finalists, Laterie Charlevoix, 6, and Fromagerie du Presbystere, 5.
Sixty-one of the 117 nominations went to 23 producers in English-Canada, led by Cows, 12 finalists, Glengarry Fine Cheese, 5, and Amalgamated Dairies, Cross Wind Farm and Mountainoak Cheese, 4 each.
Canadian Cheese Awards is the only pan-Canadian cheese competition open to all milks used in cheesemaking–cow, goat, sheep and water buffalo–with only pure natural cheese accepted for judging. That means no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and no modified milk ingredients.
"We aim to honour and celebrate 100% pure natural cheese that hasachieved technical excellence and exhibits the highest aesthetic qualities," says Georgs Kolesnikovs, Awards Chairman.
The biennial Canadian Cheese Awards is produced by Cheese Lover Productions with the support of Loblaw Companies as Marquee Sponsor and Dairy Farmers of Canada as Principal Partner, Cow Milk Cheese.
The Great Canadian Cheese Festival in Picton, Ontario, is on hiatus in 2018 to allow resources to be devoted to the launch of Artisan Cheese Night Market and related events.
- Cheese Awards website: http://cheeseawards.ca
- Cheese Lover blog: https://cheeselover.ca
- Cheese Festival website: http://cheesefestival.ca
- Social media feeds: https://cheesefestival.ca/social-media-feeds/
Source: The Great Canadian Cheese Festival