New Zealand Cheese Month
October is New Zealand Cheese Month and to celebrate, we're bringing you quite a list of choices. Jazz it up with cheese like camembert, brie or blue cheese to add that extra flavour. You can also browse through our selection of popular wines and cheese pairings.
Tasty cheese recipes
Distinguishing different types of cheese
Cheese connoisseurs use different categories to determine which type of cheese works well with different wines. Generally, there are three types of cheese: hard cheese, semi-hard cheese, and medium-hard cheese. Other types include soft cheese such as fresh cheese, blue cheese, and goat cheese.
Blue cheese
Creamy and soft in texture, blue cheese is known for its moldy pockets of blue colour. It has a sharp, clean aroma and strong flavour that some people either love or hate. Blue cheese is best served with sliced pears and walnuts with a drizzle of honey. You can even use it to make it into a dressing, mix it in salads, or add it to your steak.
Brie, harvati and halloumi cheese
Brie cheese
Most people love Brie for its mild, creamy, and silky texture. With taste notes of browned butter and mushroom, it goes well with cured ham and other known components of a charcuterie board. You can also serve it at room temperature with some crusty bread and fruit jam.
Havarti and Halloumi cheese
Havarti is a creamy, hole-filled, semi-hard cheese that has subtle sweet and acidic notes. Suited to most palates, its flavours are best intensified in cheese toasties, sandwiches and salads. Halloumi is one of the few types of cheese to keep its shape when grilled or fried. Salty and slightly tangy in flavour, Halloumi is delicious when used as an addition to your sandwich, cubed in salads or in casseroles.
Feta cheese and hard cheese
Feta cheese
Feta cheese tastes salty and tangy in flavour because it’s cured or aged in brine. Being robust in flavour and crumbly in texture, Feta’s taste can change depending on where it's made, how it's stored, how long it is cured, and how it is served. Try it in a watermelon salad or many viral baked feta pasta recipes. You can also pair it with olives, bell peppers, fresh tomatoes, and a bottle of fruity red wine.