“Christmas markets and tastings”

Cheese Talk with

Juliet Harbutt

• How one cheese shop supported locals in lockdown
• Rory Mellis, IJ Mellis: “Local businesses have a chance to flourish”
• Why we should be proud of the cheese industry’s response to Covid
• The joy of cheese grading
• “Keeping the faith”

Are you ready for Christmas this year? If you opened sometime in 2015 then you have an excuse. The rest of you should know better

But in the 15 years I was in retail I can only remember one year that I was really organised – it was when a friend came to stay over Christmas who loved cooking and cleaning, so I could focus all my attention on my staff, my sales and my sanity. 

Sadly I am not able let alone willing to do that, even for my favourite cheese shop – I am far too busy doing tastings for Christmas parties and planning my own Christmas party. But I do have time, experience and the luxury of hindsight to come up with ideas that I hope will increase your sales at Christmas.

One possible threat to a profitable Christmas is the huge number of pop-up Christmas markets, as with their festive atmosphere and potential for bargains they are very appealing to your customers. Often created by local foodies thinking they are doing the world and their favourite producers an enormous favour, whereas it quite often has the reverse effect if the stalls are owned by street traders rather than local producers.

To counteract this, create your own Christmas market with local foodies, fundraisers (football clubs and schools) and other local retailers. It is a good way to ensure your customers buy from you, and if you invite the producers along to be a part of your stand then it’s a win-win. They sell more without the hassle of setting up a stall and you get staff to man the stall plus profit on the sales. Make sure all your PR material emphasises that you are established, local, reliable and there all year round.

Ask the local school to provide the music – many schools have excellent brass bands or choirs, and then you get all the mums and dads along to see their darlings perform. Plus, you could offer space for them to sell things to raise money for the school. And what about all those pre-Christmas lunches and dinners? Is there something you could provide at discount in exchange for putting your Christmas list or flyer on the tables? The shops and businesses I deal with most are the ones who give me a flyer that I stick on my fridge or notice board and see all day every day. 

If you have a café, maybe offer your premises to local groups like the Book Club, Rotary Club or WI to celebrate Christmas with something more interesting than another evening at the pub. Wine tastings with a twist are always popular, for example “What wines to serve with Christmas dinner?” – do it with a local wine merchant if you don’t sell wines. “New Blues – Alternatives to Stilton” or a tasting that never fails, “My Favourite Tipple” with various fortified wines from Port and Sherry to Sloe Gin or any other sweet wine you care to include.

An extension of this was a tasting I did for a client a few years ago in the cellar of an old Italian castle called “The Sweet Side of Christmas” (yes I do eat other things besides cheese, especially at Christmas!). We tasted classic European Christmas cakes and puddings from mince tarts to Christmas pudding and Stollen, but when I produced panettone and not pandoro there was nearly a riot!

Whether to serve panettone or pandoro is a real dilemma in many Italian families. The first faction finds pandoro to be too simple and buttery, the second group usually hates raisins and candied fruits which abound in panettone.

Pandoro from Verona is star-shaped, dusted with powdered sugar and takes its name “golden bread – pan d’oro” from its sunshine yellow interior. Panettone, on the other hand, hails from Milan with a distinctive domed shape, sweet, yeasty taste and made with raisins and candied fruits. In fact they are now made with chocolate, orange, cranberries etc so it’s probably best to sell both!

Personally, I have never liked mince tarts and went off Christmas cake when my mother and I made 30 one year for a Christmas charity market and I ate a whole cake’s worth of raw mixture. In fact, Stollen is my Christmas cake of choice as I love marzipan and there is lots of dried fruit, nuts and spices but less than in Christmas cake.

Consider offering discounts for placing Christmas orders early, free delivery or maybe storage till the last minute to avoid the drama of stuffing three times more food in the fridge than can actually fit!

I wish you all the best for your lead up to Christmas. I hope it’s profitable, that you don’t have too much wastage, and that you retain your sense of humour till you finally lock the door on the 24th and spare a thought for me. I will be celebrating my last Christmas in my lovely 320 year old Cotswold cottage and be preparing to swap it for a 10 year old ultra modern home in New Zealand where Christmas is synonymous with sauvignon, sunshine, seafood and the beach…