Meet the ‘Pink Queen’: Swiss firm creates brightly hued cheese with a secret natural ingredient for the Chinese market
A Swiss company has produced a special, brightly hued cheese for a Chinese client who wanted to buy authentic Swiss cheese.
The customer from Hong Kong however, had one special request: the cheese needs to be in pink.
The cheesemaker reportedly spent seven months developing the product with a natural colourant, which it has declined to reveal in fear of copycats.
The eye-catching dairy product was created by family business Stadlemann cheese factory in the mountainous Toggenburg region in eastern Switzerland.
Switzerland is most famous in China for three things: chocolate, Swiss army knives and cheese.
Though customers in the Far East don’t have the habit of eating cheese regularly and often treat it as a luxury food.
The pink cheese is an extra mild cheese as the company wants to cater to the Asian taste buds, according to FM1 Today.
Jürg Stadelmann, a manager at the cheese factory, told FM1 Today that getting the colour right had been a challenge. Mr Stadelmann explained that the shade of the cheese would change during the maturing process, therefore was hard to predict.
The factory had tried beetroot and strawberry – but failed – before they found the secret ingredient they now guard as a secret, reported The Local.
‘Pink Queen’ is currently on its way to its owner in Hong Kong.
Although pink cheese is rare, it has been made before.
In 2017, the Great British Cheese Company introduced a type of pink Wensleydale which was infused with Prosecco and raspberry flavouring.
On the other hand, other Swiss firms have also launched creative, pink food in China due to the popularity of the colour among Chinese consumers.
In 2017, Zurich-based chocolate maker Barry Callebaut unveiled a kind of naturally pink, fruit-flavoured chocolate called ‘Ruby’ in Shanghai.
‘Ruby’ is the first new type of chocolate that has been revealed in 80 years – after the white chocolate was invented in the 1930s.
Date:17/1/2019
Mail Online