UK | Britain’s love for its favourite cheese, cheddar, has significantly transformed due to the changing British palate.
For centuries, the most popular strength for cheddar across the UK was mild and medium. The latest sales data revealed that the fastest growing varieties were now the most powerful, extra mature and vintage types.
To meet the growing demand, Tesco has increased the pack sizes of its own label top-strength cheeses while ordering more to be ready once they have matured for the requisite 18 months.
Cheese experts said the change was all down to the British love of spicier food, which has now dominated British cuisine and hardened Brits’ palates.
The latest 52-week volume sales data across all retailers from independent analysts Kantar (as of the 25th of January 2025) showed:
- Vintage Cheddar – growing by 5.4 percent
- Extra Mature Cheddar – up by 2 percent
- Medium Cheddar – fallen by 5.6 percent
- Mild Cheddar – down by 2.4 percent
At Tesco, demand for extra mature and vintage cheddar has increased by nearly 25 percent in the last year.
“The gradual move towards stronger-tasting cheddar varieties has come about because of our love of spicy food,” said Tesco UK cheese buyer Darren Atherton.
“With curries, Asian and Mexican food now a regular part of the UK diet our palates are acclimatising to these stronger and more exotic flavours so that we tend to go for more complex taste profiles.”
He added that this has been especially recognised in the cheddar industry, where producers have been widening the strength profiles of their cheeses to include varieties that pack a punchier taste.
“And they are achieving this by selecting different starter cultures at the start of the cheese-making process which then produce different flavour profiles over longer periods of maturation.”
As a result of the trend, more cheddar producers have been making stronger-tasting varieties.
Artisan independent cheesemakers Ford Farm, which has specialised in cheddar and has made the famous cave-aged Wookey Hole and Coastal Bite varieties also observed the rising demand for stronger and punchier varieties.
The company, based outside Dorchester, in Dorset, gave the example of its coastal cheddar, which it launched in 2000. Sales slowly grew through word of mouth until Tesco picked it up in 2006 and sold it in its stores across the UK.
In the last 15 years, the company has seen demand rocket by 460 percent, with production growing from 1300 tonnes a year in 2010 to the present 6000 tonnes.
“Demand for vintage cheddar is going through the roof right now and is almost certainly at an all-time high,” said Ford Farm’s head cheesemaker, Martin Crabb.
“We created our coastal cheddar to appeal to the consumer demand for a rich, rugged cheddar, and we age it for up to 15 months, which gives it an intense flavour while the culture used also adds a contrasting subtly sweet top note."
Crabb mentioned that the variety has won gold medals at the British Cheese Awards and International Cheese Awards, and Ford Farm has been told that it has become the best-selling branded cheddar in America.
Tesco hard cheese technical manager Eleanor Wood added that a big signifier of high quality within vintage cheddar was the visual formation of calcium lactate crystals on the inside and outside of the cheese.
“It adds so much depth of flavour and texture to the cheese, providing you with a slightly salty note but also a beautiful crunch,” she said.
“When eating the cheese, you'll be hit by the complex flavours - slight sweetness first followed by the more intense sharpness and acidic notes, leaving you salivating and wanting more.”
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