Norseland—the dairy giant behind the Applewood Cheese brand—is set to launch a vegan Christmas cheeseboard featuring four flavors.
Applewood Cheese made the announcement on Instagram. It revealed the cheeseboard would feature the company’s award-winning Applewood Vegan cheese. Applewood was awarded the best “Milk Product Alternative” at this year’s FreeFrom Food Awards for its non-dairy cheese.
The Ilchester Vegan Festive Selection will also include three brand new kinds of cheese. The new flavors are Ilchester Melting Mature Cheddar Vegan, Ilchester Blue Vegan Cheese Alternative, and Mexicana Vegan Spicy Cheese.
The company did not give an exact launch date for the new cheeseboard. However, it did say it would be out in time for Christmas.
Applewood Goes Vegan
According to Applewood, it is the UK’s first major cheese brand to launch a non-dairy cheese. After more than 50 years in operation, the company revealed in 2018 that it would be launching its first-ever vegan cheese.
The brand initially set a launch date for the dairy-free cheese for January 2019. However, following customer feedback, Applewood decided to reformulate the product and pushed back the launch date. It finally launched late last year.
Applewood Vegan was formulated in collaboration with VBites, the plant-based meat alternative and vegan cheese company now owned by vegan champion Heather Mills.
Applewood Vegan hit Asda store shelves in select UK locations late last year. According to the company, its launch was a “tremendous success.” It completely sold out of the vegan cheese within three days of its release.
Following its success, the brand announced it would introduce a non-dairy, spicy “Mexicana” cheese earlier this year. Mills took to Instagram to reveal when the new cheese would be launching. “Super excited that my company VBites’ collaboration with Norseland, Mexicana vegan, will be hitting the shelves this coming July,” she wrote.
Earlier this month, Applewood partnered with plant-based brands Meatless Farm, vegan burger bar Mooshies, and the UK frozen pizza brand One Planet Pizza. The four companies came together to create a limited-edition vegan cheeseburger pizza.
The handcrafted artisan pizza features tomato sauce, sliced gherkins, caramelized red onion, Meatless Farm’s meatless burger chunks, Applewood’s non-dairy cheese, and Mooshies’ vegan burger sauce.
