‘You can’t get Feta than that’, claims Blogger as she creates first ever cheese Advent calendar
The ‘So Wrong its Nom’ Blogger, who lives in London, has spoken to manufacturers and retailers and now has a waiting list of over 2,300 people in anticipation of the launch of her calendar in 2017.
Close to production
Hobson told DairyReporter there are many wonderful advent calendars in the world containing things like chocolate, gin and lipstick but after blogging about why there wasn’t a cheese one, the response was overwhelming.
“I’m finally close to getting it into production, so if you’d like one next year you have to sign up now,” she said.
“I’ve already spoken to manufacturers, but by showing your registered interest, I can take it to retailers. I know there’s an army of cheese lovers out there, so show me your support.”
Hobson said the name for her Blog using the word ‘Nom’ came from the noise people make ‘nom, nom, nom’, when they are enjoying their food. The site covers everything from guilty pleasures to cookery tips, ideas and recipes.
“You’d think this would be something that retailers had sold many times before. Something the likes of Babybel or Laughing Cow had jumped on for a Christmassy marketing gimmick – but no,” she said.
“I searched high and low to no avail. Upon Googling it, I did however come across lots of people asking the same question I had. Why?”
Last year, Hobson decided to create her own cheese advent calendar as a prototype with a surprise piece of cheese including vintage Gouda, St. Helen’s Farm goats’ cheese, Blue Stilton, German smoked cheese and French Doux De Montagne, hidden behind each door.
Prototype calendar
She made the test-pilot calendar out of yellow cardboard and reused a standard chocolate advent calendar where the plastic casing inside was large and deep enough to hold cheese.
With a set of mini cookie cutters to hand, she cut open the top of the chocolate advent calendar popping out the tray of chocolates and replacing them with cheese.
“I set myself a challenge – to make Christmas 2015 as cheesy as possible, and if larger cheese companies weren’t going to solve the problem, I decided to take matters into my own hands,” she said.
“The challenge was how do you get cheese to stay fresh for a whole month? Well, the first thing to note is that this is obviously going to have to be an advent calendar that lives in the fridge. There are no two ways about it. Fresh cheese = fridge.
“The second, make sure you choose cheese that has a long best before date. All the cheeses I purchased would not be going off till way past the 24th December.
“Slice the cheese into the desired depth so that it’s flat and even in size. The Blue Stilton is the hardest one to mold since it’s so crumbly. I then used cling film to stop the pieces from drying out.”
Hobson said she would be thrilled if she sold her calendar in supermarkets and shops and would like to share her story with other entrepreneurs to turn their ideas (big or small) into a business.
“My favorite cheese is a creamy Brie,” she added, “But sadly this can't be used in the cheese advent calendar as it is too soft. Whatever the outcome I’ll tread ‘Caerphilly’ to get the business off the ground.”
