UK gold awards for Portadown’s Ballylisk cheese
Ballylisk Cheese of Armagh, a FoodNI member company, has won three major
awards for its creamy Triple Rose brand cheeses in the UK’s most prestigious
competition.
The family business in Portadown gained two golds and a bronze in the unique
British Virtual Cheese Awards for two creamy cheese, Triple Rose and Single Rose.
Triple Rose gained gold and Single Rose bronze in the White Mold Cheese
category. The second gold was for Triple Rose in Artisan Cheese – Made on the
Farm of Cow’s Milk.
The awards aim to create a sustainable, inclusive and transparent cheese awards
that support and celebrate British the diversity and quality of cheesemakers, from the
grassroots up. They seek “to nurture talent to help promote a sustainable and
thriving industry to consumers”. Another objective is to generate publicity, awareness
among consumers and a route to market for entrants.
Using creamy milk from pedigree herds on Armagh farms, Ballylisk was also recently
the winner in the fiercely competitive Farmhouse Cheese category in the Artisan
Cheese Awards that attracted entries from across the British Isles. Ballylisk gained
several other medals for its quality cheese at the showcase. The company was
named a winner in the dairy category of Euro-Toques Ireland.
Euro-Toques celebrate Ireland’s culinary heritage and is a community of chefs and
cooks supporting small and artisan food producers and sourcing the best quality
ingredients available locally and in season.
The company, now one of Ireland’s leading cheese producers, recently secured
business with Marks and Spencer on the island of Ireland and expects to be listed by
the high-end retailer in Britain soon.
