Opinion divided
OPINION: Boutique milk company Lewis Road Creamery’s latest offering to mark Matariki is unfairly facing heat from certain quarters of Māoridom, who are opposed to any commercialisation of all things Māori.
Forty-five yoghurts and butters were entered in this year’s awards, the first time these categories have been judged alongside cheese.
Made on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf, Clevedon Valley Buffalo Company’s boysenberry yoghurt has won the very first Green Valley Dairies Champion Yoghurt Award.
Receiving the inaugural Food for Chefs Champion Butter Award is Lewis Road Creamery for its premium butter lightly salted.
“Adding these two exciting categories into the awards is a fitting way to acknowledge other areas of New Zealand’s flourishing dairy industry,” says awards organiser, Tony Goode.
“We’re thrilled with the results for the category debut and are hoping to see more yoghurt and butter producers embrace this award in years to come.”
Over 470 New Zealand specialty cheeses, yoghurts and butters were judged over two days in this year’s competition, with winners announced at a gala dinner and awards ceremony at The Langham in Auckland on Tuesday 17th March.
Thirty-one of New Zealand’s most experienced dairy connoisseurs joined the international judges. Russell Smith, one of Australasia’s most experienced cheese judges and renowned cheese educator led the panel.
Each yoghurt and butter was examined by a technical and aesthetic judge as a duo and strictly graded to gold, silver, and bronze standards.
“Our highly-qualified technical judges were impressed by the quality of the yoghurt and butter presented this year,” says Smith.
Smith describes Clevedon Valley’s Buffalo Boysenberry Yoghurt as, “a yoghurt with good acid development which is nicely complimented with the boysenberry flavour.”
“The sugar level is low enough that the natural fruit flavour can really shine ensuring a clean, berry flavour,” he says.
Clevedon Valley Buffalo Company has a herd of over 200 buffalo. Husband and wife owners Richard and Helen Dorresteyn have been producing award-winning buffalo cheese since 2007. The movement into the yoghurt category began in 2010.
“We’re so rapt that the Boysenberry has won the award, a flavour we have worked very hard to perfect,” says Dorresteyn.
“We have doubled the solids to ensure we produce a range of buffalo yoghurt that is consistently thick and creamy,” he adds.
The company also took home three silver medals for other yoghurt flavours – lemon zest, passionfruit, and vanilla bean, reflecting the consistent quality of the range.
In the cheese category, Clevedon Valley Buffalo won the Epic Beer Champion Export Cheese Award for their buffalo mozzarella for the first time.
The Food for Chefs Champion Butter Award was awarded to Lewis Road Creamery who launched the highly sought after fresh chocolate milk last year (made with Whittakers Milk Chocolate). Lewis Road began their European-style premium butter range in 2012.
Lewis Road’s premium butter lightly salted is made with churned full-fat Jersey cream aged with lacti culture. The creamery “strives to produce quality over quantity” with a purpose-built creamery in Mangatawhiri, Waikato.
Smith says the Lewis Road Creamery’s Premium Butter lightly salted is the perfect balance of texture and flavour.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Smith says.
“It’s an absolute honour to win this award and so brilliant to have butter recognised in the awards,” says marketing director, Angela Weeks.
“Butter is where we started so it’s a very important part of our business and a particular passion of our founder, Peter Cullinane.”
“We are blown away by Russell Smith’s comments,” adds Weeks.
“See, we can do more than just chocolate milk!”
Lewis Road Creamery achieved 100% award success with all entries receiving a medal. The artisan butter won a silver medal and the unsalted premium butter received a bronze.
