Anabelle Cheeses: French-inspired, New Zealand made cheeses

While the dairy industry is omnipresent in New Zealand, the quality of cheese varies. But Anabelle Cheeses creates high-quality award-winning products.

From Working Holiday Visa to entrepreneuship

Anabelle David first arrived in New Zealand in 2007 at the age of 23. She had come halfway around the world on a working holiday visa and a master’s in food technology. Ten years later, she is still here and a proud kiwi. However, she hasn’t forgotten her roots.

Fine Fresh Cheeses

Anabelle Cheeses combines fresh and natural New Zealand ingredients and inspiration from the French products fromage frais, fromage blanc, crème fraiche. Her products come from primarily three animals: cows, goats, and sheep.

Anabelle makes her products using A2 milk – a type of milk that contains primarily A2 beta-casein protein. Milk that is high in A2 beta-casein is mainly found in breeds that originated in the Channel Islands and Southern France. These include Guernsey, Jersey, Charolais, and Limousin cows. They are all natural and fermented with live bacteria. These types of cheese are typically known as lactic cheese – they have a low lactose content, are slightly tangy and are much softer than traditional cheeses.

But her range has expanded out to include some kitchen staples. Anabelle now sells crème fraiche, fromage blanc and yogurt.

Award winning cheeses

On top of that, she is committed to sustainable production and distribution. All her products come in reusable glass jars, and every time you re-order, they will collect your empty jars and swap them for full ones. For each jar returned, customers will get a discount voucher to use on their next order.

New Zealand’s cheese community has certainly sat up to take notice of Anabelle Cheeses. At the 2020 NZ Cheese Awards, her Goat Fromage Frais, Sheep Fromage Blanc, Sheep Fromage Frais won gold. In addition, her Sheep Fromage Frais won silver at the 2020 Food Producer Awards.

Check out her range on KIWIFRENCH.

Honest Chocolat: Meet Matakana famous Maître chocolatier

Honest Chocolat started off as a side project for Nicolas and Emily Bonnaud. “Chef Nico” is a French world-class pastry chef who had worked at Sketch, a Michelin star restaurant in London. Emily, who originated from the UK, is an interior designer by trade. Their talents meshed well when it came to creating and designing beautiful chocolates.

Honest Chocolat has attracted plenty of fans and even more awards

New Zealand has certainly sat up and taken notice of Honest Chocolat.
Nicolas and Emily moved out from their Snell’s Beach garage in 2017 to a shop in Matakana village. They even opened a shop in Commercial Bay in June 2020.
Not only do consumers love their creations, but the judges do too. Honest Chocolat’s Salted Caramel and Buckwheat Milk Chocolate Tablet won the best in class at the 2017 New Zealand chocolate awards.

One of their most extraordinary creations is water ganache filling for their bonbons

“The end result is very clean. There’s a freshness coming through, it’s not coating the tongue and the palate as much as a traditional bonbon. And it’s not as sweet because we add minimal sugar to it” said Nicolas Bonnaud.

Ganache is traditionally made from chocolate and cream; however, Honest Chocolat utilises chocolate and water. Nicolas Bonnaud likes this method because the original flavour of the chocolate stands out more and is not overwhelmed by the cream and sugar.
By not adding cream, that also makes their bonbons vegan.
Honest Chocolat

A tree planted for every bag of raw cacao sold

All Honest Chocolat’s cacao originates from ethical sources – the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The growers use sustainable techniques and plant a tree for every bag of raw cacao sold. They refrain from adding any preservatives, extra sugar, and, especially important for the duo, they do not use any palm oil. For the maître chocolatier, this allows the flavours to come through even stronger because they are not being drowned by too much butter and sugar.
Author: David Williams