Cheese is not a straightforward hamper item. It needs to be stored correctly, it travels differently depending on the season, and it changes what the rest of the hamper should contain. We build our cheese hampers around those requirements, which means the food that goes alongside the cheese is chosen for specific reasons, not filled in afterwards.

How Cheese Shapes What Happens Before It Leaves Us

Cheese is the item that sets the most specific requirements for how the hamper is assembled before it leaves.

Our cheeses are wax-wrapped, which protects the rind and helps maintain temperature during transit. They are best stored between seven and eleven degrees. In winter, that means the cheese can be packed within the hamper itself and arrive in good condition across most of the UK. In summer, we incorporate gourmet chilled food parcels to keep the whole selection at the right temperature on the way to the recipient. The approach changes with the season, but the standard the cheese needs to arrive at does not.

That preparation is invisible to the recipient. They do not open the hamper thinking about how it was packed or what temperature the cheese has been at during transit. They should not have to. The work has already been done, and what they find when they open the box is cheese that is worth eating, alongside food that was chosen for it.

This matters because the cheese is only as good as it is when the recipient opens the hamper. The wax wrapping, the seasonal packing decision, the chilled parcel in summer. These are not delivery details. They are part of what it means to take the cheese seriously as the centre of the gift rather than one item among several.

What the Cheese Needs Around It

The question for the food selection is equally practical. What does the cheese need to be eaten well?

It needs something to carry it. The oatcake or cracker alongside the cheese is not a neutral addition. It is the vehicle the cheese is eaten from, and the character of that vehicle matters. A well-made oatcake holds the cheese without imposing on it. One with too much seasoning, or one that crumbles under a firm truckle, does not do the same job. Ditty’s Handmade Irish Oatcakes appear across our cheese range because they carry the cheese properly without pulling the flavour in a different direction. They are a deliberate choice.

It needs something to contrast with it. Cheese tends to be rich, fatty and savoury. A fruit chutney with good acidity sits against those qualities rather than with them, and that is what makes the combination work. The chutney is not there to suggest occasion or to complete the image of a traditional hamper. It is there because a sharp, fruited preserve alongside a creamy or mature cheese produces something in the eating that neither provides alone. Crossogue Handmade Country Fruit Chutney, made in Co. Tipperary, has been in our range for years because it does this reliably across different cheese types and at different price points.

A cheese hamper usually needs at least one more item in the savoury direction as well. Something that extends what the cheese is doing into different territory without repeating it. A cured meat, olives, a smoked or spiced snack with its own character. These items do not support the cheese directly. They give the recipient something to reach for that is clearly different from the cheese but belongs to the same savoury occasion.

The choice of which to include depends on what the cheese is. Biltong, dried and cured with an intensity entirely unlike a soft truckle, suits a selection built around creamy or mild cheeses because it extends the savoury direction somewhere the cheese cannot go. Olives with herbs or spice bring acidity and brine alongside the chutney, which works differently from biltong but does a related job. These are not the same decision made twice. They reflect what the specific cheese in the hamper needs around it, not what the savoury section of a hamper is expected to contain.

Our wine and cheese hampers range shows what this looks like at different price points and in different formats. The three below each make a different version of the cheese-led argument.

Gourmet Pathway Hamper Gift (£74.68)

The Gourmet Pathway is where the building logic is most clearly visible. Two Bandon Vale cheese truckles, the Glandor and the Vintage Nutty Cheddar, form the centre of the selection. The Glandor is smooth and creamy. The Vintage Nutty Cheddar has a denser, more mature character. Both come from the same Cork producer, which gives the selection a consistent sourcing logic that holds across both cheeses.

Ditty’s Handmade Irish Oatcakes carry both. Crossogue Handmade Country Fruit Chutney provides the contrast for both. The third savoury element is Fenner’s Original Biltong, a dried cured meat that takes the selection somewhere entirely different from either truckle. It is not there to support the cheese. It is there because it gives the recipient a completely different kind of savoury thing to reach for alongside it. There is one bottle of Wyndhams Estate Bin 555 Shiraz.

The Bandon Vale truckles, the Ditty’s oatcakes made in Northern Ireland, the Crossogue chutney from Co. Tipperary. The sourcing logic and the building logic point in the same direction. What the Gourmet Pathway shows is that building from the cheese does not require a complicated selection. The oatcake carries it, the chutney contrasts with it, and the biltong extends the savoury direction into different territory. Each item has a function.

“I purchased this item as a birthday gift. The recipient was very very pleased with the contents & the fact that many of the items were produced in Ireland. He was especially impressed by the cheese selection.”

-Carmel L.

Silky Spicy Pinot Hamper (£80.24)

The Silky Spicy Pinot builds around one cheese rather than two. That cheese is Carrigaline Original Handmade Cheese from Cork. Carrigaline is made by a family producer that has been making handmade artisan cheese for decades, and the Original has a creamier, more delicate character than a mature cheddar. Building around one specific cheese means every other decision in the selection follows from what that cheese is.

The foundation is the same as the Pathway. Ditty’s oatcakes as the vehicle, Crossogue chutney as the contrast. What differs is the additional savoury direction. Ember Chilli Beef Biltong, Smoked Irish Almonds and Peanuts, and Greek Chilli and Oregano Oloves all have heat and assertiveness. They are not neutral items placed alongside the cheese. Alongside the creaminess of Carrigaline, the smoked and spiced elements provide a contrast that works in a different register from the chutney. The chutney sits against the cheese through acidity and sweetness. The spiced items sit against it through heat and smoke. Two different counterparts to the same cheese, and together they cover more of the available contrast than a simpler selection would.

“I ordered the Silky Spicy hamper and requested that the red wine be switched to white which was done. My niece absolutely loved it. The quality of products were exceptional and the packaging was really superb. Would definitely reorder.”

-Anonymous

Light and Bold Hamper (£133.87)

The Light and Bold gives the cheese two vehicles rather than one. Two Bandon Vale truckles, the Murragh and the Vintage Nutty Cheddar, alongside both Linseed and Black Pepper Crackers and Gourmet Multiseed Sodabread Toasts from Foods of Athenry.

Two vehicles change what the selection can do. The crackers are firmer and more neutral, which suits the denser Nutty Cheddar. The sodabread toasts have their own flavour and a softer texture, which changes what the creamier Murragh truckle tastes like with them. The recipient does not have one route into the cheese. They have options depending on which they pick up first, and the selection at this price point earns its cost partly through that generosity in the vehicle direction.

Crossogue Fruit Chutney is the contrast for both cheeses. Rosemary and Garlic Olives from Silver and Green sit alongside as a savoury companion with their own distinct character, different from the biltong in the Pathway and the smoked almonds in the Silky Spicy. There is more sweet food in this selection than in the other two, and the two wines, Jacob’s Creek Double Barrel Shiraz and Stoneleigh Pinot Noir, mean there are different things to drink with different things to eat. The savoury side, however, is built around the cheese in the same way. The whole hamper arrives in a magnetic valise, which is proportionate to what it contains.

“The hamper was full of delicious things, from cheese, cheese biscuits and olives to honey, jam, cakes, biscuits and chocolates: all the luxuries you would want for Christmas.”

-Cathy Z.

Why the Selection Starts With the Cheese

Basketsgalore has been making hampers since 2002. The founding approach was straightforward. The right number of top-quality foods, in appropriately sized packaging, sourced from suppliers worth trusting. A cheese hamper is a concentrated version of that approach. Every item in it has to justify its place, and the cheese is where the building starts.

The standard has not changed. The foods inside should be good enough that the recipient wants more of the specific things in the hamper, not simply another hamper like it. For a cheese selection, that test applies to everything around the cheese as much as to the cheese itself. The Crossogue chutney has to be worth reaching for on its own terms. The Ditty’s oatcakes have to carry the cheese properly. The Bandon Vale truckles have to be worth opening in the first place. They are in the range because they meet that standard, not because cheese and chutney and oatcakes are what a cheese hamper is supposed to look like.

A selection built outward from the cheese means every item has a reason to be there. The recipient does not need to know what that reason is. They open the hamper, reach for the oatcake and the cheese and the chutney, and find that the food makes sense together. That is what building from the cheese is for.

Published: May 2026 

Author: Amy & Effie Earth