Beenleigh Blue

Beenleigh Blue

A delicately blue sheep’s milk cheese from Devon, with a lemony sweetness and moist, crumbly texture.

Portion
Regular price £10.95
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  • Spend over £39.50 to receive free delivery (England, Wales & Central Scotland)

Standard delivery is free to most postcodes in the UK for orders over £39.50. Click here for a list of postcodes where additional delivery charges apply.

For orders under £39.50, standard delivery is £8.00.

Collection from our London shops is free - choose Shop Collection at checkout.

Choose your preferred delivery date at checkout. As we use third party couriers (typically DPD) we cannot guarantee the arrival day of your order but we will do our best to ensure that it arrives as close as possible to your chosen date. To be sure it arrives in time, we recommend choosing a date a couple of days ahead of when you would like to eat your cheese. 

milk type
Sheep

ingredients
Pasteurised Sheep's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Vegetarian Coagulant, Penicillium roqueforti

coagulant
Vegetarian Coagulant

milk treatment
Pasteurised

location
Totnes, Devon

milk source
Bought-in

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milk type
Sheep

ingredients
Pasteurised Sheep's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Vegetarian Coagulant, Penicillium roqueforti

coagulant
Vegetarian Coagulant

milk treatment
Pasteurised

location
Totnes, Devon

milk source
Bought-in

season
All year

average age
6-12 Months

cheesemakers
Ben Harris

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Beenleigh Blue was the first blue cheese created by pioneering cheesemaker Robin Congdon, who utilised similar techniques to those used to make Roquefort, though the resulting cheese is quite different in taste.

Background

Beenleigh Blue is one of three cheeses created by Robin Congdon and now made by Ben Harris and his team at Ticklemore Cheese Dairy in Totnes, Devon. The milk comes from Tom and Helen Garland, who f...

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Beenleigh Blue is one of three cheeses created by Robin Congdon and now made by Ben Harris and his team at Ticklemore Cheese Dairy in Totnes, Devon. The milk comes from Tom and Helen Garland, who farm locally in Devon, and contributes to the production of consistently high quality cheeses. After being moulded and pierced to allow the blue mould to form, the cheese is wrapped at a few weeks of age to prevent the development of a rind.

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Our Work

Randolph Hodgson started Neal's Yard Dairy at around the same time as Robin Congdon started Ticklemore Cheese Dairy, and we've worked closely together from the beginning – with Robin and now wit...

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Randolph Hodgson started Neal's Yard Dairy at around the same time as Robin Congdon started Ticklemore Cheese Dairy, and we've worked closely together from the beginning – with Robin and now with Ben Harris who took over the cheesemaking in the early 2000s. We visit twice a year to taste and select cheese with Ben, and twice a year he comes to visit us at our Bermondsey arches. This dialogue is essential, as Ben's cheeses are matured on the farm and delivered to Neal's Yard Dairy ready to sell. More recently, we have been keeping some of Ben's younger Beenleigh Blues and maturing them in our maturing rooms to create Brunswick Blue: a more dense and biscuity blue cheese with a natural rind.

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Accompaniments

Biscuit Selection
£11.70

Rosebud Spiced Plum Chutney
£6.10

Tracklements Fig Relish
£4.75

Serving Suggestions

After pan frying a steak, melt some Beenleigh Blue into the juices for a delicious and simple sauce.

FAQs

As a general rule of thumb, we would recommend roughly between 100 and 150 grams per person for after dinner, and a bit more if cheese is the focus of the meal. If you are buying cheese to serve over a couple of days or as part of a buffet, it is advisable to buy a few larger pieces. This will both look better and keep better than many small bits. To help visualise weights, a good tip is to consider that a regular supermarket pat of butter weighs between 200 and 250 grams. If you are at all unsure please give us a call for some advice.

The best option is to keep your cheese wrapped in its paper within a box in the fridge. This will prevent the cheese from drying out and absorbing other flavours. Your cheese will arrive wrapped in waxed cheese paper, which achieves the best possible balance between maintaining humidity around the cheese and allowing it to breathe. We are happy to provide some free extra cheese paper, just search for "cheese paper" and add it to your basket. We don't recommend cling film or foil as it can cause the cheese to sweat which will negatively affect the flavour.

Customer Reviews

Based on 15 reviews
87%
(13)
7%
(1)
7%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
R
Rosalind Rowett
Gorgeous tangy blue

Beautiful cheese, tangy but not overwhelming.
All gone, alas!

Thank you so much for sharing your feedback with us Rosalind!
Kind regards,
NYD

C
Claire Clark

Beenleigh Blue

Many thanks for your review Claire. We appreciate it.
Kind regards,
NYD

G
Gillian Mitchell
Been Leigh blue

First time had this cheese. Beautiful and creamy. Certain to buy again

Many thanks for your feedback Gillian - much appreciated!
Kind regards,
NYD

A
Anonymous

First rate blue sheep - very much as you, NYD, describe it, and an interesting change from more mainstream stronger cow blues

Hi Rupert,
I am glad you enjoyed Beenleigh Blue. We believe it is tasting remarkably good as well.
Kind Regards,
NYD

N
Norman Smalldridge
Distinctive flavour

First time trying this cheese. Very tasty and flavoursome.

Hi Norman,

We're happy to hear you've enjoyed Beenleigh Blue. Thank you so much for your review and feedback.
All the best,

NYD