Young Buck Blue success in Irish Cheese Awards

Young Buck blue cheese, the recently launched Northern Irish raw milk cheese, has gained its first-ever award in the Irish Cheese Awards held recently in Dublin.

The cheese, developed by Mike's Fancy Cheese Company at Newtownards in county Down, struck silver in the Blue Cheese (Any Milk) Category in the event that was held as part of Bloom, a three-day festival in Phoenix Park, Dublin with backing from Bord Bia, the Republic's food promotion agency.

Mike Thomson, the blue cheese enthusiast who launched Young Buck earlier in the year, commenting on the first award, says: "Winning an award at the first event I've entered is a tremendously encouraging development and will help me in my efforts to boost sales in the Republic, where Young Buck is already distributed by Sheridans."

Young Buck is a stichelton cheese, the first of its type in Northern Ireland, and is the result of work by Thomson over three years that has included a course in cheese making at Britain's School of Artisan Foods and a stint with a leading cheese maker.

A qualified social worker, Thomson also gained knowledge of the cheese business working with the Arcadia, Northern Ireland's award winning gourmet food shop in Belfast.

Thomson turned to crowdfunding support through the Seedrs organisation to raise the necessary finance to kit out his small cheese production unit in a local business park. He uses milk from a nearby award winning Holstein herd in the processing of the blue cheese.

The Irish Cheese Awards are now in their fifth year and is the only competition dedicated entirely to Irish cheese. The Bloom showcase provides a great platform for the awards and Irish cheese attracting over 100,000 consumers to a dedicated pavilion within the Food Village in the park.

The awards had 17 classes including an individual class, cheese for children.

This year, the awards had new awards partner, Traditional Cheese Company. Traditional Cheese Company (TCC) was founded in 1984 as an independent specialist cheese wholesaler to supply retail and foodservice markets.

The company has established itself as experts in sourcing and supply. Eugene Carr and Grainne Whalley judge at International Cheese Competitions and have a wealth of cheese knowledge which they bring to the business. In addition to lending their support with the logistics of the awards, Traditional Cheese Company was instrumental in overseeing the judging at the show ensuring quality, fairness and transparency.