I bought my husband an Ilchester Cheese Advent Calendar for the 2022 Christmas season. He likes cheese. I like cheese. I'd heard a lot about this calendar in 2021 but when I'd found it then it was too late. This time I found it at our local Co-Op grocery store and it was on sale.
The calendar featured 24 days of cheese but there was only a variety of 9 flavours. That meant there were several repeats. The calendar was of cereal box cardboard grade and was apparently designed to fit in the door of a refrigerator even though I didn't store it that way. The individual doors were perforated for easy removal and each package of single serve cheese was nestled in a light plastic tray.
The calendar price ranged from $36.99 to $29.99. That breaks down to approximately $1.54 a piece of cheese. However, when you consider that over half of the pieces were double flavours the cost is more.
What we enjoyed. Well, Hubby really enjoyed getting a piece of cheese every day with his lunch. We both enjoyed the information on the different flavours and it allowed us to explore different flavours which we'd never heard of or never had the courage to try before. We discovered one flavour is aged, one is smoked, one is part of an annual festival where it's rolled down a hill. We really liked the red Leicester flavour of cheese while the majority were very good. The only one which didn't go over well was the one infused with cranberries and sage. I liked it but it was a bit strong. I realize it's a seasonal flavour so that's why it was included.
What we didn't enjoy as much was the repeat flavours. So this calendar is all one brand manufactured by Ilchester Cheese. Bravo for them creating a calendar! However, when you end up having the same flavour a couple days in a row it becomes a bit "meh". The other thing, which is not their fault at all, is that the brand isn't stocked here. The only flavour that the grocery store tends to have is the Applewood smoked cheddar and in my opinion, there are other brands that supply that which we'd buy first in larger quantities. Ilchester is a British cheese company and it seems that Cathedral is a more widely supplied brand. So when I did want to purchase some of the flavours we'd tested - we couldn't.
It's worthy to note that while the advent calendar is adequately constructed, that by the time Christmas Eve arrived, the box had not stood up to the test of time. The doors were torn and falling apart. It went straight into the recycle bin. If you are one to enjoy packaging then this probably isn't for you.
Do you have a cheese lover in your family or group of friends? This does make a great gift for the holidays. We did thoroughly enjoy it and I hope it continues to gain interest and that they include more flavours to make the calendar even more interesting.
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