Ashgrove Cheese Factory

All right, if you are in Tassie and around Launceston- this one is a must. Well, we had landed at Launceston Airport, picked up our car and started driving towards Devonport on the Bass Highway, about 70kms from the airport, you come across the Ashgrove Cheese Factory. Well, to me the excitements was because – one it was cheese and second, I have always seen Ashgrove cheese products at the local woollies or coles all the time. To see the place of origination of a brand is always excitement. Well, there is a big board or the highway with signs to the factory. As you park and go towards the shop, there are award winning cow sculptures.

Now initially I thought this would be like a big industrial factory, but it wasn’t that big. You head into a small shop and as you enter and look around, you realize, that the cheese is being made right beyond the glass walls. There are cheese making vats and it takes about 10 liters of milk to make about 5 kgs of cheese. And while the area looked small, it had two vats which can store about 10,000 litres of milk for processing which in turn produces about 1 tonne of cheese.

Further down and there was the storage area where stacks and stacks of cheese were held. There is an open counter where you can go for cheese tasting. The factory shops focusses on milk, cheese tasting, jams, marmalade and sauces. Other products such as Tasmanian wine, almonds and cashews are also sold.

Coming to the cheese tasting, you just got to do it. Loads of variety such as the premium vintage cheese, rubicon red, wasabi favoured cheese are all there for tasting. Just lovely. You can buy the various cheese packs or get one of the mixed packs like the beer lovers cheese which has 5 variety’s of cheese.

Further, there is a small café in house which does coffee’s, hot chocolate etc. In addition the do this cheese sandwich, which is so out of the world. Unbelievable. It’s a Ashgrove Havarti cheese, avocado, chicken and mayonnaise sandwich. Just lovely- the stretched mozzarella, the smoky cheese favors with the avocado and mayo- Beautiful. Must have guys.