itchybum Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 The New Zealand cheese you can buy in tesco and most shops is excellent. I recently found a local dairy that makes cheese, I have bought and tried their Vintage, Monteray Jack and Cheddar. The cheddar is fine, good actually and kids love it. The Vintage is very good, and the MJ I can pass on. Thing is, why bother buying the Thai one when it ends up around the same price as the NZ one, 200g of Thai one is around 130b, the NZ on at 250g is circa 170b. Factor in Thai costs as compared to NZ costs and particularly import costs and the Thai one could/should sell reasonably cheaper, but they do not....so why buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeavyDrinker Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 My guess would be that they have seen the price of imported cheese and have priced their own product accordingly. I'd agree that they are certainly missing a trick here. Why not tell them that we westerners are a conservative bunch and will stick with what me know...unless the local produce is considerably cheaper.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeijoshinCool Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Yep, they think we're as thick as a wheel of cheese. I'll stick with the NZ, which is excellent, until the locals substantially lower their pricing. But maybe that would be a loss of face ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jocko Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 i like a strong cheese so what Kiwi cheese would you recommend ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukrules Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 I believe the cheese he's referring to is the 'Mailand Vintage Cheddar', it's the best one and I've been buying it for years. I find the rest of the Mainland cheeses to be pretty tateless but the Vintage cheddar is 100% 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimShortz Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 You can of course also buy the rather good Anchor New Zealand mature cheddar from Macro At 790 Baht for 2kg. Not going to win any prizes, but a decent cheddar cheese by any standards and costs less than 40 Baht for 100 grams - great value! I chop mine into blocks and freeze it. It comes out slightly crumblier than it went in, but still tastes great. Actually I even prefer the slightly crumblier texture that freezing gives it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 You can of course also buy the rather good Anchor New Zealand mature cheddar from Macro At 790 Baht for 2kg. Not going to win any prizes, but a decent cheddar cheese by any standards and costs less than 40 Baht for 100 grams - great value! I chop mine into blocks and freeze it. It comes out slightly crumblier than it went in, but still tastes great. Actually I even prefer the slightly crumblier texture that freezing gives it... Talking of Makro, they recentky had there own cheddar for 599 2kg block, give it a miss, its awful ! Ok for cooking or sauce making but pretty weak and not a patch on the .Mainland Mature discussed above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trainman34014 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 I've tried many but never had a decent piece of Thai cheese. Apparently they can't 'mature' it long enough in tropical climes, so why they charge so much for tasteless junk is mystifying and it's an even bigger mystery why anyone buys it ! Mainland Vintage is the best by far and i'm happy to support New Zealand farmers. Always bring back at least 2 kilo's of strong Cheddar every time i leave the country. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewrooney Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 The Villa Market on Ramkamhaeng has California cheese that is priced cheaper than the local stuff. Only a bit over 100 baht for 200 grams. The mozzarella is pretty bland but the pepper jack and the sharp cheddar are good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itchybum Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 Mainland Tasty is good as is one other, cannot remember name now. The Thai cheese does sell the vintage which I said is very good in large 2kg blocks for 800b, so that is a better deal, but they did not have any when we went there last time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterisbetter Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 The reason Thai cheese is so expensive is that milk is expensive here. In lots of parts of the world it's subsidized. Not in Thailand. Also, in a tropical country, the cost of keeping the cheese at the right temperature while it's ripening is considerable. There's a reason why aged cheeses generally come from regions cooler than Thailand.. As for good cheese in Thailand, there's a company in Chiang Mai called Hapico that makes a Camembert that actually tastes like Camembert Don't know if it's available elsewhere.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatboy Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Yep, they think we're as thick as a wheel of cheese. I'll stick with the NZ, which is excellent, until the locals substantially lower their pricing. But maybe that would be a loss of face ... i buy the 2kilo blocks of nz.anchor chedder from makro which i to find good and it freeze's well,i wanted to try the local caroline brand till i saw the price never learn will they. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bcgardener Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Makro has a very good mozzarella from Hua Hin in 1kg blocks. Very nice creamy texture and white colour. Perfect for slicing up to top pizza. About 350 Baht I think. Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itchybum Posted September 13, 2013 Author Share Posted September 13, 2013 Yep, they think we're as thick as a wheel of cheese. I'll stick with the NZ, which is excellent, until the locals substantially lower their pricing. But maybe that would be a loss of face ... i buy the 2kilo blocks of nz.anchor chedder from makro which i to find good and it freeze's well,i wanted to try the local caroline brand till i saw the price never learn will they. The Caroline is only 10b more than the Makro one and much better, for 2kg that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToddWeston Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 i like a strong cheese so what Kiwi cheese would you recommend ? I prefer Mainland epicure aged up to 36 months - if you like blue soft cheese BiG C has Casino Bleu which is often 89 baht as they mark it down 3 weeks before expiry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeijoshinCool Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 The reason Thai cheese is so expensive is that milk is expensive here .... The last time I was in the States, four years ago, a gallon of milk was almost $6. I think that's pretty expensive. And the other costs are far higher than here. No, I've no doubt that they saw the prices of imported cheeses, then rather than make the smart business move and undercut those prices and garner a following, the typical Thai ego figured they knew how to make just as good a cheese, and that we'd pay full price for it. Having said that, perhaps it is a farang-run business. In that case, the move was even dumber. Makro does have a nice "shakeable" Parmesan cheese that is just as tasty as Kraft. Schreiber is the brand, 454 grams at 250 baht. The Kraft is 250 grams and tops 400 baht. Big difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonaldBattles Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 It should be noted that the Aro Makro cheddar is imported from Australia for about the past 5 years. Minor cheese demand for mozzarella was so great from their Pizza Companies they had to stop making cheddar because of factory and aging capacity. They buy in 20 kg block from Australia and then cut and package in Korat. I used their cheese under my own brand name that they packed for me a long time. It is not bad for Australian cheese not aged so long. Carolina Brand makes only retail packs in Korat. Their cheese is OK but has always been over priced for retail. Also it has limited distribution. Their factory is small and production is limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyG Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 Carolina Brand makes only retail packs in Korat. Their cheese is OK but has always been over priced for retail. Also it has limited distribution. Their factory is small and production is limited. I suspect you mean Caroline (a brand name of Premier Dairy foods) - not Carolina. To be honest, I'd assumed they were an imported brand, so thanks for the enlightenment. Now their products definitely seem overpriced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterisbetter Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 The reason Thai cheese is so expensive is that milk is expensive here .... The last time I was in the States, four years ago, a gallon of milk was almost $6. I think that's pretty expensive. And the other costs are far higher than here. No, I've no doubt that they saw the prices of imported cheeses, then rather than make the smart business move and undercut those prices and garner a following, the typical Thai ego figured they knew how to make just as good a cheese, and that we'd pay full price for it. Having said that, perhaps it is a farang-run business. In that case, the move was even dumber. Makro does have a nice "shakeable" Parmesan cheese that is just as tasty as Kraft. Schreiber is the brand, 454 grams at 250 baht. The Kraft is 250 grams and tops 400 baht. Big difference. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 years ago the average retail price of milk was $2.98 per gallon. Currently it's $3.45 per gallon. Which comes to about 30 baht per liter. Maybe you were computing in Singapore dollars? In addition to which the U.S. government subsidizes the corn, soybeans, and other grains used to feed the dairy cows. There are also programs in both the USA and the CE to subsidize cheese exports which puts pressure on New Zealand and other producers to keep their prices low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatboy Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Yep, they think we're as thick as a wheel of cheese. I'll stick with the NZ, which is excellent, until the locals substantially lower their pricing. But maybe that would be a loss of face ... i buy the 2kilo blocks of nz.anchor chedder from makro which i to find good and it freeze's well,i wanted to try the local caroline brand till i saw the price never learn will they. The Caroline is only 10b more than the Makro one and much better, for 2kg that is. where are you getting the caroline from? the only place i have seen it is in home fresh at the mall and they are more expensive than anywhere.what i have been buying is allowrie cheese slices great with burgers and ham toasties,a choice of chedder,gouda and edam available at tesco 99bht for 10slices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itchybum Posted September 16, 2013 Author Share Posted September 16, 2013 Yep, they think we're as thick as a wheel of cheese. I'll stick with the NZ, which is excellent, until the locals substantially lower their pricing. But maybe that would be a loss of face ... i buy the 2kilo blocks of nz.anchor chedder from makro which i to find good and it freeze's well,i wanted to try the local caroline brand till i saw the price never learn will they. The Caroline is only 10b more than the Makro one and much better, for 2kg that is. where are you getting the caroline from? the only place i have seen it is in home fresh at the mall and they are more expensive than anywhere.what i have been buying is allowrie cheese slices great with burgers and ham toasties,a choice of chedder,gouda and edam available at tesco 99bht for 10slices. At the factory between saraburi and korat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now