our products

Sulguni

Sulguni is without a doubt the most popular cheese in Georgia, and is enjoyed in many of its neighbouring countries all around Eastern Europe. It is a stretched curd cheese which has been produced in Georgia for centuries, and comes in many different varieties, from fresh and mild to aged, dried and smoked, and often quite salty. As different as they all may be, what they all have in common is that layered texture which makes it melt beautifully and gives it that nice stretchiness of a mozzarella-style cheese.

At the moment, we only make two variations of sulguni - semi-hard sulguni and smoked sulguni. The first is very aptly named as is not quite a soft cheese and not quite a hard cheese, though both are essentially the same cheese, the latter simply being a smoked version. The semi-hard sulguni has a mild, fresh flavour and a salty, buttery tanginess to it. Its melting quality makes it a great ingredient to use in cooking in dishes like pizza, pasta/potato bakes, lasagna, omelettes, toasties, quesadillas and basically anything you can think of that requires a nice stretchy cheese. The smoked sulguni is much the same, though the smoking process gives it a creamier texture. The smoking process is, by the way, all natural, done in our own little smokehouse using manuka chips, so it has an authentic, rustic smoky flavour and aroma. It melts just the same and goes wonderfully in more robust dishes such as meat pies and burgers, and can give a lot of flavour to a basic dish like polenta. Of course you can use both any way you like - people always ask us if there is any particular way to use it, and we always say it's entirely up to you!

Both our sulgunis were awarded silver medals at the Cuisine Champions of Cheese awards, the semi-hard in 2010 and the smoked in 2011.

Inguli

Inguli is unlike anything you have tried before! It is an entirely original fresh cheese developed by Marina Kandelaki, chief cheesemaker and resident mad scientist at Colchis Ltd, and named after her aunt Inga (as her Georgian nickname is Inguli). It is made from cow's milk and has a strong, very salty flavour, inspired by the brined cheeses popular all around Eastern Europe. What makes it so unique, however, is that it is made with kefir grains, which come from the Caucasus Mountains to the north of Georgia, and have been used for centuries to make a beverage which is now becoming more and more popular due to its probiotic qualities. For us, using these grains give inguli a complex, slightly yeasty flavour and an interesting lace-like appearance (as the curds puff up like dough when we make them, due to the yeast). Texture-wise it is a little similar to haloumi, so can be lightly fried but it will still eventually melt so you need to be careful, fry it on a low heat and it helps to breadcrumb it.

Our favourite way to eat it is simply with some nice toasted bread (Turkish bread or dark rye is the best!) and butter, but again there are no limits to what you can do with cheese! Try it in a salad in place of feta, grated over hot pasta, in a quiche or omelette, or anything else you can think of!

The inguli won a bronze medal at the 2009 Champions of Cheese Awards, which was a lovely surprise for such a strange cheese!

KHACHAPURI (Georgian cheesebread)

Possibly the most famous dish to come out of Georgia, though you could still be excused for never having heard of it or having any idea how to pronounce it! Essentially, it is a baked cheese toastie. We cram a pizza-style dough full of our sulguni cheese, close it up, flatten it out and bake it to golden perfection. All you have to do is heat it up at home - ideally in a panini press or toaster oven, but you can also use a conventional oven or stovetop, and even a microwave if you like a softer crust.

It will last in the fridge for at least a week (keep it in cling wrap), and you can keep it in the freezer for months and months.

It is quite a filling dish so try it with a side-salad or soup, but as always - anything goes, and be sure to let us know if you find any delicious accompaniments to it!

TVAROG (Russian-style cottage cheese)

Tvarog is different to the Kiwi-style cottage cheese in that it is more creamy and dense, almost like a cross between quark and cream cheese, with a mild sourish flavour. From it you can make a myriad of things, ranging from dips with herbs (our favourites are coriander or mint and basil), fillings for tortellini or pies, desserts such as cheesecake, and our favourite - gnocchi!

We are playing around with all these possibilities right now, but mostly we sell the herb dips, though we are working on making a whole range of other treats with a tvarog-base in the near future.

Oh, and while it may seem quite creamy, it is still just as healthy as cottage cheese!

Please note

All our cheeses are made from cow's milk, using vegetarian rennet, and contain no gluten, preservatives or any artificial flavour at all.

Also our brains are always working to come up with new delicious stuff to make so there is definitely a lot more to come!