Tasmanian dairy producers have won big at the 2023 Royal Melbourne Food Awards, with the judges crowning the state home to the country’s best cheese and milk.
Cambridge-based Coal River Farm faced stiff competition from 59 other entries from around the country to win the best cheese award for their ‘Farm Blue’.
The judges praised the cheese for its unique “earthiness” qualities, describing it as having a “nice salty developed rind, with a little white mould”.
Coal River also earned a silver award in the mould surface or washed rind cheese category for their ‘Triple Cream Brie’ and ‘Ashed Brie’, while their ‘Blue’ cheese took home a gold award.
Ashgrove Cheese were honoured for producing the best unflavoured fresh milk in the country with their ‘Ashgrove Non-Homogenised Milk’.
Judges commended it for being a prime example of unhomogenised milk with a “rich, full-bodied taste and rich flavour”.
Ashgrove further impressed the judges to secure gold awards in multiple categories, including unflavoured cow’s milk with ‘Ashgrove Non-Homogenised Milk’, ‘Ashgrove Full Cream Milk Gold’ and ‘Ashgrove Farm Light Milk’.
Their ‘Farmhouse Butter’ also claimed gold in the Butter category.
In the ice cream category, Van Diemens Land Creamery won gold for their ‘Chocolate Gelato’ and silver awards for ‘Cafe Latte’ and ‘Spiced Pear and Tamarind Caramel’ ice creams.
