How to build a perfect cheese board to go with your gin!

For an evening of easy opulence and casual elegance, it’s hard to beat a perfectly curated cheese board paired with Whitby Gin The Demeter Edition, our October 2020 Gin of the Month.

With the award-winning Peter’s Yard sourdough crispbreads that our members can find in their October 2020 Gin of the Month boxes, creating an amazing platter of cheesy delights couldn’t be easier, especially when you use your gin as an inspiration!

When deciding what to add to our cheese board so that it will be a great match for our gin, we always start with the key flavours of the gin itself. With Whitby Gin The Demeter Edition, for example, the key flavours are juniper, floral notes of heather, rosehip and elderflower and sweet fruit and spice tones akin to plum and vanilla, with a little hint of pepper dulse, which is a seaweed that gives the gin remarkably rich undertones.

The rich and the sweet
To balance against the rich juniper and pepper dulse elements of the gin’s flavour profile we recommend including soft, sweet, lightly citrus-forward fruits like physalis with their gorgeous, golden leaves. Their bright, vibrant flavour is a delicious contrast to those rich flavours and to the decadent, smooth and delectably pungent saltiness of the classic Italian blue cheese, gorgonzola. Enjoy both on a Peter’s Yard Spelt & Fig sourdough crispbread for the most incredible mouthful.

A honeyed bouquet
A perfect way to elevate the floral aromas of the gin is with honey, especially heather honey if you can get it, as that will really match the heather flavours of the gin. And what cheese goes well with honey? Goat’s cheese! The soft, white, fresh-tasting tang of a good goats cheese is divine when taken with a little honey. And there’s no better canvas on which to enjoy that combination than a Peter’s Yard Charcoal & Rye sourdough crispbread. Like all of the Peter’s Yard offerings, these beautiful crispbreads were inspired by a traditional Swedish recipe and are made from a 45-year-old sourdough starter that ferments for 16 hours before each batch is made. Delicious!

Spice and fruit and all things nice
Those delectable sweet plum and warm spice flavours of the gin are a great match for autumnal fruit like figs, apples and pears. Add those to the board as they are or in chutney form and you are in for ream treat. Fruits of this kind are utterly divine when eaten with something soft and melting like a good brie or camembert, especially if they are baked with rosemary and garlic (pierce the cheese with rosemary sprigs and garlic cloves and bake in an oven at 200c for 20 mins)! Peter’s Yard Original sourdough crispbreads then make for the perfect scoop with which to deliver all of that gooey yumminess to your mouth. Yes, please!

All that’s left is to present all of these wonderful combinations on one board and watch your gin pal’s eyes light up with glee when you place it down in front of them.