Trefaldwyn Blue

Trefaldwyn Blue is a new and luxurious bold and creamy blue cheese from Montgomeryshire in Mid Wales made by Clare Jones. The cheese takes it name from the ancient Welsh language and originally meant Baldwin’s Town, the Welsh name for Montgomery.

Trefaldwyn Blue is the brain child of Clare Jones who gave up her job as a primary school teacher in order to make cheese.  She set up her dairy in Montgomery two years ago and has since been developing the recipe for Trefaldwyn Blue over the last year, perfecting the making process to deliver a really lovely full flavoured, soft and creamy blue cheese made from pasteurised cow’s milk. The addition of Annatto, an orange food colouring derived from the seeds of the Achiote tree gives the cheese its distinctive hue and look. 

Trefaldwyn Blue is inspired by the stunningly beautiful rural area in which Clare and her family live. They are surrounded by many small dairy farms with rich pastures that produce the very highest quality milk. All of this milk used to be collected and taken away to the large dairies for processing. However, Clare identified the growing movement towards high quality locally made food with consumers becoming more discerning and wanting to know where their food has come from, what has gone into it and that it is produced ethically.

A key part of the cheese making process is called acidification, this is where microbes transform lactose in the milk to lactic acid, most commercial cheese producers do this quickly to maximise production. With Trefaldwyn Blue, this is done slowly, this helps to develop the unique bold and very creamy flavour of the cheese. Clare likens this to bread making where a slow rise creates a better flavoured bread.