The French love cheese and France is full of great cheeses. These are facts. However, the proliferation of (and stiff competition between) French cheeses has traditionally meant that British (and other international) cheeses can be particularly difficult to find in France. Yet Britain produces some amazing cheeses and The Trading Post have made it their mission to get these onto cheeseboards across the continent.

The Trading Post stock a wide range of fabulous British cheeses from Carron Lodge's Singletons & Co range. We have mild, mature and vintage extra mature cheddar, in addition to a variety of flavoured cheddars (Jalapeno & Garlic, Red Onion, and Oak-Smoked spring to mind). We have wicked Wensleydales, really lovely Red Leicester, mildly joyful Monterey Jack and decidedly gorgeous Double Gloucesters. When constructing your next cheeseboard (or ploughman's lunch) we really have something for every season.

British cheeses have a deep heritage and, as their names suggest, a distinctive regionality that makes them genuinely unique in both character and flavour-profile. The French undoubtedly have some great dairy products but, as I have said too many times to count, you can never have too much cheese.

Check out this page of Singletons & Co cheeses for traditional favourites and exciting flavour variations.

People miss all kinds of things about the UK but different types of food are always high on the list. Today we focus on Mrs Darlington's who supply us with all manner of jams, preserves, ketchups, pickles, chutneys, marmalades and curds. Exactly the sort of range you'd find in a farm shop, the gingham-topped jars are an icon of bucolic country Britishness, evoking WI meetings, ploughman's lunches, country pubs and coastal bed & breakfasts.

Whilst Mrs Darlington's started with lemon curd and developed into many well-established British favourites, they also have quite innovative variations of your typical larder fayre. The Trading Post try to stock something for both the traditionalists and the more adventurous. Just try their three-fruit marmalade (spoiler alert: one of the fruits is grapefruit), the rhubarb and ginger jam or some genuinely incomparable mango, chilli & lime ketchup. 

Each jar has a gingham-patterned paper top that makes it stylish as well as tasty. They are excellent gifts, especially when paired with a local cheese and, with Christmas coming up, we know there'll be a few jars appearing in stockings and homemade hampers throughout the land.

There will be one of these traditional countryside treats in every Trading Post prize package this November. Just order any day in November to go into the draw.

Robinsons squash has been part of The Trading Post's range for a long time. French sirop doesn't match a British cordial for flavour and refreshment. Perhaps it's because we have drink fruit squash from an early age and so it gets 'hard-wired' into our experience. Either way, a long glass of Robinsons is always a treat.

When discussing our most iconic products as part of our 20th anniversary celebrations, we often concentrate on the link between The Trading Post and the brand - how we have supplied X number of bottles, or how we put these icons of UK cuisine into supermarkets, bars and households across France (and wider Europe). Today though I just want to talk about how we talk about squash...

If, like me, you regularly have to translate descriptions of British products into French, you will see 'squash' repeatedly mistranslated as 'gourd.' This, however, is not just a quirk of online translation tools (unlike when Google Translate decided 'frozen chicken' was 'poulet La Reine de Neige.' Even British people aren't sure what to call squash. Apparently the difference between squash and cordial is a largely due to the same key factor that demarcates the difference between jam, 'extra jam' and preserve: sugar ratio. However, in common usage, cordial and squash are used practically interchangeably. In some areas of the UK, these words are joined by other terms; dilute, diluting juice (Scottish English) and water juice (Scottish Isles). To confound things further, some people colloquially refer to squash as simply 'juice' which is technically incorrect (as no squash is pure fruit juice) whilst it does seem to acceptable to officially label a squash as "high juice" if it contains a high amount of actual fruit juice (in addition to sugar). Last, but not least (and probably also not last) there are many products which refer to themselves as a 'fruit drink,' although these are often pre-diluted versions of a squash drink.

All of the above makes me want to take Wiley's classic grime track "Wot Do U Call It? and re-record it with lyrics referring to the many disparate terms used in British English to refer to a fruit-flavoured, sugary beverage which requires the addition of water prior to consumption.

What do you call it, squash? (What do you call it?)
What do you call it, squash?
Squash?
What do you call it, cordial?
What do you call it, cordial?
Cordial?
What do you call it, diluting-juice?
What do you call it, diluting-juice?
Diluting-juice?
Tell us what you call it then

So. In conclusion. Robinsons squash/cordial/diluting juice/juice/water juice/sirop/mixer is as iconic to British non-alcoholic beverages as Wiley is to British grime music. I'm not sure how/why we came to this final statement, but here we are.

Oh, and there will be a bottle of Robinsons 'squash' in every Trading Post winner's hamper this November. That, at least, makes sense.

The Trading Post may not have George Clooney, Olivia Colman, Samuel L. Jackson or Rboerto De Niro on their payroll, but they do have their favourite British bread and bakery items in their warehouse. Despite France being lauded worldwide for its boulangeries and pain, for many people nothing beats a proper loaf of sliced bread. And don't get me started on the general necessity of buttered crumpets...

Nothing completes a sausage sandwich or bacon butty quite like a couple of slices of Warburtons bread and practically nothing can compare with the thuxurious (thick & luxurious) pleasure of a hot, buttered, just-toasted slice of Toastie bread. Whilst Warburtons are now undoubtedly Britain's biggest bread brand, this has not always been the case and many people from outside the North-West of England will only have discovered them after their rapid expansion in the 1990s. Nowadays they are EVERYWHERE including supermarkets, shops, hotels, pubs and cafes throughout France, thanks to The Trading Post.

Warburton's position as one of Britain's favourite brands has most recently seen them team up with massive hollywood stars to advertise some of their most popular products. In addition to the actors noted above, Morgan Freeman, Sylvester Stallone and The Muppets have also appeared to promote the bakery. In turn, this has led to all kinds of posts, youtube videos and 'advertorial' pieces in the national press, such as The Telegraph's "Why Do Hollywood Stars Keep Advertising Warburtons?"*

The Trading Post are very happy to have tonnes of Warburtons bread, crumpets and muffins ready to deliver throughout France and, as part of our 20th birthday celebrations, we'll be sneaking some Warburtons goodies into every hamper given away every day in November.

*I could've saved The Telegraph lots of trouble. The answer is probably money. Warburtons are probably paying them money. Journalism over.