Grandvewe Sapphire Blue 150g
On special down from $19.95
This robust blue cheese is made in small batches which vary in strength depending on the ewe milk’s seasonality. It has a Roquefort acidity with a spicy, sea-salty bite and smoky finish. Texturally, it varies from crumbly through to smooth and creamy. Born on 10 Jan 2024.
Serve at room temperature.
98% of lactose intolerant people can have sheep cheese
Ingredients: Sheep milk, non-animal rennet, cultures, salt and mould
Storage tips:
The way you store your cheesy stash can make or break its quality. Wrap washed rind, blues and soft cheeses in waxy, grease-proof parchment paper to stop it from getting sweaty. Blue cheese can also be wrapped in alfoil to stem blue mould growth on the cut surface. Hard cheeses can be wrapped in plastic but we prefer waxed paper for these as well.
Once you’ve wrapped your cheese, pop it in a sealed plastic (like a hard container or zip-lock bag) to control humidity and stop it drying out. It should then be stored in the vegetable compartment of your fridge.
Even if you do all of this correctly, cheese can develop surface mould. It doesn’t grow inside the cheese and most moulds are food-safe anyway. Just gently scrape or cut it off and your cheese is good to go.
How does sheep's milk differ from cow’s milk? Sheep’s milk offers superior digestibility to cow’s milk, due to the following factors:
Size of fat globules: The fat globules of Sheep milk are finer than those of cow’s milk, allowing for a greater surface to volume ratio for enzymatic attack. This enables the fat of sheep’s milk to be broken down and digested more easily.
Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT): Sheep’s milk has more MCT’s than cow’s milk. Lipases attack the ester linkages of the shorter-chain fatty acids more readily, enabling more rapid digestion. MCT’s are metabolically unique in that they can be absorbed by a simpler mechanism than other fatty acids. MCT’s, which are higher in sheep’s milk than cow’s milk, have a unique ability to provide energy to the human metabolism, as well as an ability to lower, inhibit and dissolve cholesterol deposits.
Curd strength: Sheep’s milk casein forms a less tough and more friable curd than the casein of cow’s milk. This means the digestive enzymes can break it down more rapidly. Alpha-S1 casein is the main casein in cow’s milk and this contributes to the firmer curd; Sheep’s milk contains low levels of alpha-S1 casein.
About Grandvewe: Good for our sheep, good for the planet, good for you. That’s the Grandvewe way. Everything we do is founded on respect for our sheep, respect for the environment and a love of exceptional cheese.
We are always looking for innovative and creative ways to find no-waste solutions that honour our sheep and the environment. For example, before shipping, we wrap our cheese in frozen sheep wool to keep it cold, rather than using the chemical ice bricks you’re probably used to seeing. We’re also working towards completely compostable packaging. We’ve got the boxes, labels and tape down pat and we were the first cheesy in the country to use 100% certified HOME COMPOSTABLE cryovac bags.
Our sheep are our livelihood. We love them and we look after them. All of them keep their tails and live out an idyllic life on our beautiful farm. But in the great circle of life etc., the best way for us to respect them is to make sure that nothing’s wasted.
Unlike the poor rams at a lot of dairy farms, ours have a chance to enjoy a peaceful existence. From birth, they’re offered to our local community as state-of-the-art organic lawnmowers. If they’re still unsold after a couple of years, their lives are ended humanely and their meat is used in our on-site cafe’s Kranskies for some exceptional farm-to-table eating. The sheep whey from our cheesemaking process (thrown out by most cheesemakers) goes over to Hartshorn Distillery to be made into award-winning spirits. Any milk that isn’t high enough quality for cheesemaking is shared with Ewe Care and made into beautiful, organic body and skincare products.
Made on Nuenonne Country - Birchs Bay