Travels for Cheese – Episode 3: Rehab.

Don’t worry folks I didn’t attend some form of residential rehabilitation due to my raging cheese addiction, no what I did instead is feed my habit by attending a different kind of Priory. In this case, Binham Priory. Conveniently placed next to a small dairy shop (what’s the chance of that eh?) it is conveniently positioned in the middle of nowhere but had a surprisingly large selection of dairy goods. Despite my love of ice cream and Skyr I managed to keep my eye on the prize and managed to grab a selection of local cheese from that area of the country.

I took the opportunity to test the ‘Tripper’ navigation my bike comes with, I will review that separately but it certainly got me there in good time and through a variety of roads.

First up was the ‘Copys Cloud’, this soft brie-style cheese might be styled like Brie but it’s got its own style and taste going on. It’s neither as buttery, salty, and with a milder flavour than your off the shelf Brie. There is a slight aftertaste which almost reminiscent of a Danish blue, backed up by a wafer thin rind.

Next up was the ‘Wells Alpine’, a Swiss style hard cheese which takes 6 months to fully mature. I’ve seen people compare it to Gouda, this is a massive underselling of this unique cheese and is roughly equivalent to calling Batman a ‘Bat styled hero’.

Last but by no means the least from this selection, the ‘Norfolk Dapple’. A hard, slightly crumbly hard cheese with a slightly nutty kick to it. If I was a marketing guru (obviously I’m not) I’d call it “Rustic” & “Old fashioned”, it certainly goes with a good bit of bread better than it does crackers! There is also a smoked version of this but decided against grabbing any this time with all the other cheers I already had, and hoping for any additional cheeses from ‘Mrs Temples’ I set off there next.

The Google came up with the confusing info that I might be able to buy extra cheese from the source, sadly this was not the case in what appears to be a source of bitterness. On the plus side I think the Meteor’s charm worked, thus I got to peep at some of the cows, a trio of calves and got to peep through the window of the cheese room!

I was hoping to get my mitts on some ‘Norfolk Tawney ‘, a washed cheese which had previously caught my eye but so far eluded me. Alas there was none in the dairy shop so I have another reason to sneak back at some point!