My head’s still spinning with everything I learned in 3 hours yesterday on the Kelham Island Food Tours Artisan Food Tour!

We began at Cutlery Works, with talks from Lee from Foundry Coffee Roasters on coffee and then Max from Bullion on chocolate.

Samples were a big part of the tour, with food or drinks at every stop; no complaints here!

Then it was over the road to Sheffield Cheesemasters to meet founder Sophie.

She taught us about making Little Mester, their smooth and creamy signature cheese with a Camembert vibe, before we had a nibble on it (delicious!).

Next door at The Depot Bakery, baker Ian talked us through their sourdoughs, which we tasted as we went.

We tucked into some sausage rolls (meaty and veggie) and black forest cheesecake brownies, which were gooey and perfect.

 

Feeling full, I was grateful for the amble over to The Riverside, our final stop, where Lauren met us. Over a beer or gin from True North’s extensive range, she talked us through the history of True North, from its first steps in 1992 with The Forum to the present day, multi-venue business with its own brewery and distillery.

So, what did I learn? I’ll not rehash everything, but some of my favourite takeaways from the day include:

• Bullion makes Sheffield home to one of only 12 bean-to-bar chocolate producers in the UK, and the first in Yorkshire

• Coffee is the second most-traded commodity in the world (after oil)

• Dave, Walter and Ryan are the names of the three different sourdough starters at The Depot Bakery

• Sheffield Cheesemasters is the only cheese producer in Sheffield and uses Our Cow Molly milk!

I’d never done a food tour before, so wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was great! Sophie, who runs Kelham Island Food Tours, really knows her stuff, telling us extra info about Kelham Island as we walked round. The tours are just £38pp and are booking now for the next few months. You can buy gift vouchers too- a present any foodie should be very happy with!