There is Camembert and Camembert; the industrial cheese made anywhere, using pasteurised milk, pure white and without any depth, and Camembert de Normandie AOC made from raw milk, ladle-moulded and now produced in only 11 creameries. Like all great cheeses, it is the lush Normandy meadows that make the milk that makes the cheese. Camembert has a characteristic mould rind with a slight brown mottling. At perfect maturity the straw coloured pâté is uniformly ripe with no chalky centre. It has a herby aroma with a strong pointer to mushrooms and exhibit grassy tones.
Price per cheese £4.35
Type Mould Ripened Soft Country France Region Normandy and Brittany Milk Cow's Milk Size 10-11cm diameter, 3cm high Weight 150g Raw milk: Yes
Normandy and Brittany Normandy is characterised by lush, rich, low-level farmland where cows and sheep graze freely right up to the coast where the cliffs overlook the English Channel. The soil here is salty, referred to locally as prés-salé meaning salty fields and it is no surprise that the regions cheese inherits some of this salty tang. Inland the land becomes ever more fertile and the landscape is dotted with small villages that provide a base for the local agricultural industry.