Over the Moon Dairy from Putaruru has again won gold at this year's Cuisine Champion of Cheese Awards at a glamour gala dinner in Auckland in March.

Michelle Mason, Cheesemaker, Sue Arthur, owner Over the Moon Dairy and Grietje de Vries, Senior Cheesemaker with award winning cheeses, Galactic Gold (the big square) and Double Delight (the round).

The six-year old company took out the top award for its signature washed rind cheese 'Galactic Gold”, winning the Thermaflo Champion Washed Rind category as well as a gold medal.

This is the fourth time the cheese has won the category and according to owner Sue Arthur is down to the determination of her team to get this enormously complex cheese to perfection.

'I first tasted this style in Australia when I started my cheesemaking training and knew immediately we had to make it for the New Zealand market” she said. 'It made me go weak at the knees.”

'Double Delight” won the Innovative Packaging Champion Soft White Rind category, and another gold medal. The cheese is a brie-style in a subtle blend of goat's milk and cow's cream and has been a hit with top delis and restaurants around New Zealand.

Sue decided to make this blend after many customers mentioned that the taste of goat milk was too sharp.

'Adding cream to the mix moderates the flavour somewhat and makes goat milk a bit more appealing and accessible,” she says, adding that this product has already won a bronze medal at the World Cheese Championship in Wisconsin in 2010.

The company won eight medals in total this year and believes that the high quality local milk they get is a key contributing factor in their success.

Sue also notes that her cheesemaking team of Grietje de Vries and Michelle Mason are highly trained and proud to produce cheese that consumers love to eat and share and their dedication shows through in the wonderful products they produce.