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My love of cheese started when I was 8 or 9 when our amazing teacher, Mrs Prothero, decided to do a whole term based on milk and milk products. Through weeks of farm and dairy visits, to making and trying milky drinks and puddings, culminating in my favourite week – trying lots of different cheeses.

This is the long way of saying that I was very excited when we were invited by Homage2Fromage to an evening sampling Welsh & Irish cheeses, in fact I was happy to fight off all other Admins for this opportunity.

Firstly, lets talk about the venue, the Grain & Hop Store is tucked away in Regent Street but has views over Parkers Piece. It’s huge and definitely a pub that loves it’s sport by the number of screens. The upstairs room, complete with its own bar, is a perfect spot for Homage2Fromage’s Cambridge home. It’s a large room with plenty of seating, from small intimate tables to larger tables to share with a group to a cosy sofa or two. The main disadvantage is it can be a bit echoey due to the size which means that you may miss some of the information. I wish I had moved so I could hear better but our host was very approachable if you wanted clarification.

Our host for the evening greeted us as we arrived, he was so friendly & welcoming, it was clear this was going to be a fun night. We were asked to take a plate, napkin and knife before finding a seat or having a look around the tables laden with goodies but asked not to start sampling until everyone had arrived and ‘Cheese’ was called. Our tables also had sheets explaining how the evening would work (House Rules) and another giving you a chance to mark the cheeses by texture, taste, smell and then an overall score out of 10.

There were three tables with cheese numbered from 1-8, grapes, tomatoes, chutneys, a variety of biscuits, French bread, butter, and honey (more on this later!), plenty of cheese already cut but also cheese knives on each board if you wanted to cut more.

It was obvious that some of the people were returning visitors to Homage2Fromage events and I can honestly see why. How did I know they had been there before? Some had brought their preferred accompaniments such as sun dried tomatoes or they knew to make a slight alteration to the plate! Until I moved the napkin I didn’t even spot that there is a wheel stamped in the middle with numbers 1-8 – it looks a bit like a ships wheel (and I’m wondering how I forgot to take a picture so I could show you, rather than try to explain it!). One very sensible lady had extended the lines to the edge of the plate – I highly recommend this tip!

The House Rules included a rule of thumb – on your first visit to the cheese tables don’t take anything bigger than your thumb. This is a perfect rule as it gives everyone a chance to try each cheese and it means if you really don’t like it you won’t waste too much. Once everyone has picked their first sample you can go back as often as you like and take as much as you want. I have to say it was obvious which was the favourite on  the night as it disappeared very quickly! We definitely made the most of the experience, revisiting the tasting tables several times but didn’t feel greedy doing so.  I guessed the blue, soft cheese, goats cheese and smoked but was surprised by the others. I have always been adventurous with cheese but this gave me the opportunity to expand my repertoire and I will be adding a couple more to the shopping list!

It’s fun to have someone else with you to share the experience and I was grateful that my sister joined me, it also shows how tastes vary! I loved watching the other tables and seeing the good humoured discussions going on. We tried the individual cheeses by themselves, with crackers, with an accompaniment and were surprised how that changed our view of the cheese. I have tried strawberry jam with cheddar in the past but cheddar and honey was a revelation and something I will be trying again in the future.  The other thing that was interesting is how little my tastes have changed from those of my 8-9 year old self – I hated the goats cheese and wasn’t too keen on the smoked cheese (although it was very subtle and not as in your face as those I remember) but adored the blue cheese.  

This honestly is a perfect evening to share with friends or for a works outing and would make an amazing gift for a cheese loving friend or two. It’s lots of fun and very relaxed, there is no stuffiness about needing to drink certain wines with cheese – want beer or cider instead? Carry on! Would I do it again? Absolutely, this was right up my street and I’m happy to say that Homage2Fromage have a different theme every month so there are many opportunities ahead of me.