- First Milk and Golden Hooves win eight gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals across its full range of Cheddar, Double Gloucester and Red Leicester cheeses
- The Golden Hooves Cheddar range is available at all 27 Booths stores from 18th September
The success of First Milk and Golden Hooves cheese continues, this time at the highly revered Global Cheese Awards, held near Frome in Somerset.
The British-owned dairy co-operative secured two Champion trophies and a total of 24 class awards, comprising eight gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals across its full range of Cheddar, Double Gloucester and Red Leicester cheeses.
The Champion UK Cheese trophy was won by the extra mature Cheddar produced at First Milk’s Lake District Creamery, while the second trophy, for Champion Territorial Cheese, was won by a Double Gloucester from First Milk’s creamery in Haverfordwest.
First Milk’s Customer Quality Manager Jack Eade said, “First Milk has an impressive track record at the major cheese shows, and I’m delighted we’ve shown this again at this well-respected event. To achieve awards across our entire range clearly indicates our commitment to manufacture cheese to the highest standards. Congratulations to everyone involved, including our farmer members who provide us with the highest quality milk from which to build.”
Golden Hooves at Booths
The awards come just as First Milk has announced that Booths will be stocking its Golden Hooves Cheddar range from the 18th of September.
Part of the family-owned retailer’s ongoing commitment to being more sustainable, the listing will see Golden Hooves’ Mature Cheddar and Vintage Cheddar stocked at all 27 stores, across Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria and Yorkshire.
Created to wave the flag for the regenerative efforts of the co-op‘s 700 members, many of which are farming across ‘Booths Country’, Golden Hooves is daring shoppers to think differently about dairy.
Having secured a significant haul of trophies in its first year, including Golds at the British Cheese Awards, International Cheese & Dairy Awards, Virtual Cheese Awards and Global Cheese Awards, the brand is working to make it easy for consumers to love their cheese and the planet at the same time.
Regenerative dairy has been on the rise at Booths over recent months, including a listing for First Milk member, Torpenhow Farmhouse Dairy’s cheese, as well as a milk vending machine installed at Keswick Booths in May by another co-op member, Midtown Farm in Caldbeck.
Dairy but different
First Milk, the source of all the milk that goes into Golden Hooves products, is a certified B-Corporation and was awarded the King’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development in 2023. Using grazing cows to work the land with their hooves, Golden Hooves’ farmers are striving to encourage plant and wildlife biodiversity, protect the soil and maintain living roots, a process which is believed to remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it into the soil.
Leona McDonald, director of Golden Hooves, said, “This is a hugely exciting moment for Golden Hooves – and for the whole regenerative movement – as our listing with Booths represents a big thumbs up from one of the country’s most respected retailers.
“Our partnership with Booths will help us to engage with more cheese lovers than ever before – making them curious about what regen is all about, and confident about how it can be a solution to climate change. Golden Hooves is here to make it easier, tastier and more fun to enjoy planet-friendly food every day, so we can’t wait to get out there in Booths stores and see what people think!”
Alan Kirby, buyer at Booths, added, “At Booths, matters of provenance and integrity of production are vitally important to our buying decisions. I’m impressed with the commitment to regenerative farming this brand shows, and the cheese is top notch quality as well.”