roduces beautiful artisan cheese; Robot Food produces great branding and design. To mark Le Grand Départ, the two Yorkshire-based companies put their heads together for a special edition rename of the award winning Yorkshire Blue cheese.Shepherd’s Purse and Robot Food have a few things in common – an innovative outlook, dedication to their craft, and pride in their Yorkshire roots. The cheese maker and brand design consultancy had already worked together on Shepherd’s Purse branding and packaging, and with Le Tour De France round the corner, they decided on a limited edition cheese pack to celebrate. The cheese maker’s flagship product, Yorkshire Blue, was ripe for some special edition fun.
The Yorkshire Blue labels were already blue, so Robot Food added white and red stripes in honour of the French flag. The proud cow at the top of packs, there to signify the usage of cow’s milk in the product, instead became a ‘winning’ cow resplendent in the iconic yellow jersey. Next up was the name, which was changed to become ‘Le Yorkshire Bleu!’.
Simon Forster, Creative Director at Robot Food, said: "Le Tour coming to Yorkshire is a great opportunity for local brands. As two passionate Yorkshire based companies, we couldn’t resist collaborating on a limited edition pack. Taking the Yorkshire Blue, we turned the ‘proud' cow into a ‘leading' cow. We trimmed her down, clothed her in the famous yellow jersey, and added a ‘graffitied’ beret and moustache. The name became – what else – ‘Le Yorkshire Bleu’.”
Shepherds Purse attended the handover event at the end of Le Tour on the Champs -Élysées last year and were inspired after the guests at the event expressed their admiration for the quality of the products.
Caroline Bell, Director at Shepherds Purse, said: “We wanted to do something to both promote one of our hero products and also recognise the compliment paid to us by the French guests we met last year. The guests confessed to us that they had a pre-conceived idea of British cheese as hard, like cheddar or stilton, and that they were ‘blown away’ by our continental style cheeses.”
Yorkshire Blue also celebrates its 20th anniversary this summer. Since its launch in 1994, the product has won a host of awards, beating off stiff international competition. Awards include the title of Champion Blue Cheese in show at Nantwich International Cheese Awards, a range of accreditations at the World Cheese Awards and British Cheese Awards and most recently, a Great Taste Gold Award**.
The limited edition ‘Le Yorkshire Bleu’ is available in all leading independent cheese shops and delicatessens, on the counter in Waitrose, Booths, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s, Tesco and in 100g wedges in Tesco.
