Cornish Kern is an alpine-style cheese made by the Lynher Dairies Cheese Company based near Truro. Despite only coming to market two years ago, the product was crowned world champion at the 30th annual World Cheese Awards held at London's Tobacco Dock.
230 judges whittled down the 3,000 entries to 66, 16, and then, finally, to the winner. With each cheese, they examined the rind and the body of the cheese, its colour, texture, consistency and, above all, its taste.
Kern, which won a Supergold award last year without winning the overall award, was this year awarded 75 points out of a possible 80 by the final jury of 16 judges. In second place, with 69 points, was an Italian Blu Di Bufala made by Quattro Portoni Caseificio.
According to Cathy Strange, one of the judges, Cornish Kern is “visually stunning with its standout dark rind and the quality of milk is really evident in this cheese -it has an amazing age and a complexity, which keeps on coming. This is a super cheese and I would be glad to have it on any table.”
Catherine Mead from Lynher Dairies said: "The French produce great cheese but so do the English. We mustn't be underestimated."
Sarah Barnes, technical manager at Lynher Dairies said: 'I'm on top of the cheese world! Throughout the course of the day our Kern went through so many layers of judging, going from 3,001 to 66, to the top 16 and then World Champion and the judges said some wonderful things about our cheese. Cornish Kern is a new concept so to see it come to this is so exciting for the company, and a great start for this cheese's career.”
Lynher is a member of Cornwall Food and Drink, Dairy UK, and a sponsor of the UK Cheese Guild and process two and a half million litres of carefully selected Cornish milk.
The company also produces another award-winning cheese, the nettle-covered Cornish Yarg.