A Gift Guide For Cheese Lovers
Did I ever tell you I love cheese? Well, I love cheese. Cheese is for life but it’s also very much for Christmas.
As I get older, I eat less meat and certainly the meat I eat today tends to be the higher welfare kind of meat. That is not to say I’m veering towards veganism. There are two tasty reasons for this, eggs and cheese. I would live without meat before I would give up cheese and that’s the truth of it.
This is not my first rodeo in the world of cheese gifting and I wrote a post about gifts for the cheese lover in your life a couple of years ago. Some items on that list still stand.
As an aside, I like my christmas cheese with a bottle of the blackberry wine from Wicklow Way Wines. It pairs beautifully with dairy goodness.
Now to set the record, you will read about Sheridan’s a lot in this post, so just in case you’re wondering, no, they did not sponsor this post. They’re just the best cheese shop in town. Also, if you see an Amazon link in this post, please take it as read that it is an affiliate link.
Now that we’ve got the admin out of the way, let’s get down to the good stuff.
Sheridan’s Cheesemongers
Sheridan’s, as you may know, specialise in all things cheese. Below, I list the items that would make a memorable present from the cheapest to the most expensive. All these items can be found directly on their website.
- Kevin and Seamus Sheridan wrote a book with Catherine Cleary from the Irish Times, it is called The Sheridans Counter Culture Guide to cheese – €19.95
- Give a man a cheese and he will eat it, teach a man about all the cheeses and he will never go hungry again. Sheridan’s offer a cheese course in the spring and the autumn – €75.00
- You can buy membership to their cheese club for 3 months, 6 months or 12 months – €120 to €420
Cheese Accessories
I love all types of melting cheese dishes, I love fondue and raclette and aligot and tartiflette. I think cheese pulls are one of life’s biggest pleasures.
It’s now easier to find the right tools to makes those dishes and in general, they get used for a social occasion. One of my favourite things to do is to sit around a hot appliance while melting a lot of cheese and drinking a lot of wine.
Raclette machines can be found in Lidl and Aldi the odd time but if you want the convenience of click and buy then you can have a look at a range of models, models like this one, this one or even this one!
Fondue sets are a clever presents as, yes, you can melt cheese in them but you can also melt chocolate. They come at all sorts of prizes. This one is cheap enough but very pretty or alternatively, you can invest in something durable and classic, like this Le Creuset one.
Melting cheese is all well and great but if the cheese lover in your life is more into the science side of things they may greatly enjoy this cheese-making kit. I know I would.
Finally, I like a good cheese-board. I know there are stunningly beautiful ones made from wood but I’d be too worried about damaging them. This is why I think slate makes the best cheese-board. And in Ireland, slate means Slated! Tara and her husband hand-carve every single slate item that comes out of their studio which means that each piece is ever so slightly different. If you like, they will personalise the board for you. I don’t think I would opt for that option myself, because I’m certain everyone already knows that all the cheese is mine.
