The age old question, which is better – cheese or chocolate? In order to find the answer, Mintel, the consumer analysts, surveyed the british public to finally find out, which is the nation’s favourite. 

Cheese of chocolate?

A quick poll round the office here suggests that it’s not that tricky a decision after all, though we might be a slightly biased sample! Eventually, and with similar numbers, we went with the Mintel results that show 50% of the 2,000 questioned would give up chocolate, and 47% would sacrifice cheese from their life. 3% in the Mintel survey said they don’t like either, but thankfully there’s no such negativity in the Godminster office!

Of course, there were regional variations and the age-groups voted differently.  Knowing how sweet the teeth are at my house, and how much cheese we eat each week, it’s a tough choice but I’m sure I could count on them to make the right one.  Mintel suggests that UK consumers will buy 356 million kilos of cheese this year and a whopping 444 million kilos of chocolate. See Mintel’s summary of their research here.

The stats 

Mintel also quizzed people on the sort of cheese they buy, to give us a clearer picture of what people are comparing when they answered if they would give up chocolate or cheese.  91% of participants had bought cheese in the last three months, and 71% of those bought cheddar. Cheddar has been the nation’s favourite for years. They weren’t asked for which brand of cheddar, but we know how delicious people find our Vintage Organic Cheddar!  Other regional cheeses, like Red Leicester and Double Gloucester, also fared well.

The key, we suppose, is that Godminster cheddar is an absolute fridge staple in our house.  We eat it on its own, we cook with it, we grate it and add it on top of other food.  Have a look at our recipe page for some of our favourite ways to cook with cheese and you’ll get an idea of just how versatile it is.  One might argue that chocolate is also essential, but that’s definitely more of a treat in our house.

Thankfully, it was just a hypothetical question, and I for one have no intention of giving up either!