Price range: £3.95 through £39.00
Délice des Crémiers is an indulgent French triple-cream cheese with a wonderfully soft, buttery texture and delicate flavours of sweet cream, hazelnuts and mushrooms.
If you think Brie is creamy, wait until you try Délice des Crémiers.
This wonderfully indulgent French cheese is made by Fromagerie Delin in Burgundy, right in the heart of the Côte de Nuits wine region. It’s a triple-cream cheese, which essentially means somebody looked at an already creamy cheese and decided it needed more cream.
I wholeheartedly approve.
Underneath its soft, snowy-white rind is an incredibly rich, buttery cheese that becomes softer and more luxurious as it ripens. It’s one of those cheeses where a relatively small piece goes a long way — although that has never stopped me going back for another bit.
This is where Délice des Crémiers gets particularly interesting.
Extra cream is added to the milk during cheesemaking, producing that wonderfully rich texture. To be classed as a triple-cream cheese, it must contain at least 75% fat in its dry matter.
And that last bit is important.
It doesn’t mean that 75% of the cheese you’re eating is fat! Cheese contains a considerable amount of water, so the actual fat content of the finished cheese is much lower. The percentage refers specifically to what’s left once the water has been removed from the calculation.
Still indulgent? Absolutely.
75% fat? No.
I thought we’d better clear that up before anyone put their piece back.
The cheese is gently formed before being salted and allowed to develop its characteristic white bloomy rind.
Like Brie and other bloomy-rinded cheeses, Délice des Crémiers ripens from the outside towards the centre. When it’s younger, you may find a firmer, slightly chalky middle surrounded by softer cheese underneath the rind.
Give it time and that creamy layer gradually works its way inwards.
When it’s beautifully ripe, the cheese should feel soft and yielding, and once you cut into it you may find it beginning to ooze.
That’s when I’m happiest.
This is all about texture.
Délice des Crémiers is incredibly smooth, rich and buttery, with a texture that reminds me of clotted cream or whipped butter when it’s properly ripe.
The flavour begins with sweet cream and cultured butter, followed by a gentle lactic tang that stops all that richness becoming too much.
Towards the rind you’ll find more mushroomy, earthy flavours and sometimes a little hazelnut. And yes, the rind is edible — I’d definitely encourage you to try it because that contrast is what makes the cheese interesting.
It’s luxurious without being particularly strong, which makes it dangerously easy to eat.
Jen’s note: Triple cream sounds wonderfully decadent — and it is — but don’t panic when you see that figure of at least 75% fat in dry matter. It doesn’t mean the cheese itself is 75% fat. So that’s settled. You can have another piece.
Sizes and Prices
Storage Advice
Delivery and Collection
Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, cream (MILK), salt, rennet, lactic ferments
Normal opening Monday – Saturday 9am – 4pm until:
Sunday 22nd 9am – 4pm
Monday 23rd 9am – 4pm
Christmas Eve 9am – 12pm
Christmas Day Closed
Boxing Day Closed
Friday 27th Closed
Saturday 28th 9am – 4pm
Sunday 29th Closed
Monday 30th 9am – 2pm
Tuesday 31st 9am – 2pm
New Year’s Day Closed
Thursday 2nd January Closed
Friday 3rd 9am – 4pm then open as normal
After Christmas our courier delivery slots start from 8th January.
