A Welsh border artisan cheese maker had "tears of joy" after picking up two accolades from prestigious food awards.

Clare Jones, of Trefaldwyn Cheese, won the coveted two-star Great Taste award and bronze from the Artisan Cheese Award for her popular Trefaldwyn Blue cheese.

“Making my cheese is quite complicated and also physically hard work but I love the whole process," Clare said. "What makes me really happy though is the amazing feedback I receive from my customers, the deli’s, hotels and restaurants and also their customers and that means so much to me.

"I now receive messages from total strangers telling me how much they love Trefaldwyn Blue, I just never expected that. I just can’t tell you how delighted I am to win these awards, when I heard that I had been awarded a Great Taste Award, I literally had tears of joy rolling down my face”.

Clare, who was previously a local primary school teacher, started making the award-winning Trefaldwyn Blue in 2019, which is made entirely by hand in small batches in Montgomery. As a mark of quality as well as taste, Trefaldwyn Blue will now display the unmistakable black and gold logo, a stamp of excellence that is recognised by retailers and consumers.

 

Trefaldwyn Blue cheese.

Trefaldwyn Blue cheese.

 

The Great Taste judges described Trefaldwyn Blue as “a really fine-looking cheese with thin even moulding and rich egg-yolk orange and creamy paste, striated evenly with blue".

The judges added: "The cheese has a rich creamy and clean texture on the palate and the flavour is perhaps surprisingly subtle but savoury with any appealing bitterness from the blue complementing the rich, buttery but also light texture of the cheese”.

Growing demand for Trefaldwyn Blue has meant that Clare has been able to double production in recent months and is looking to increase further with Christmas orders already piling in.

It is available from The Castle Kitchen and Spar in Montgomery, Derwen Farm Shop in Guilsfield, The Corner Deli in Clun, Cultivate in Newtown, Blasau Deli in Machynlleth, Camlan Farm Shop in Derwenlas, as well as further afield in the Mousetrap in Ludlow, Leominster and Hereford, The Cheese Shop and Cheerbrooks farm shop in Nantwich, Marches Deli in Abergavenny and The Little Cheesemonger in Rhuddlan and Prestatyn.