American Couple Reacts: Cheddar Gorge Sights! Somerset, England! FIRST TIME REACTION! *THOSE CAVES!* 

This was recommended by quite a few people recently. However, no one told us what to expect. So if you don't already know, you are in for a tret, quite literally. If you do know, you'll be amused at our surprise! This was a very fun video and we really love seeing more and more of the United Kingdom! Thanks for watching! If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our channel, it is the BEST way to support our RU-vid channel and it's FREE! Also please click the Like button. Thanks so much for watching!

Now you can understand why we are so precious about Cheddar cheese. It upsets us when we hear phrases like "American Cheddar" and you see a bright orange fake piece of rubber purporting to be cheddar. Once you've had proper Cheddar you'll realise why we are so proud of it.

I love the assumption that a town was named after a cheese and not the other way around 😂

The town isn't named after cheese. The cheese is named after the town :)

Cheddar Gorge is also where the oldest human skeleton was found in Britain. A 9000 year old skeleton of a man , unoriginally named the "Cheddar Man"

This is why all the countries that claim to make Cheddar cheese, they don't, they have a knock off version.

We met some Americans a few years ago who were adamant that cheddar cheese was "invented" (their word) in Wisconsin, USA. The process of cheddaring, which makes this kind of hard cheese as flavourful and characteristic as it is has been used in the UK for many hundreds of years. Cheddar is the world's most widely produced cheese and can range from mild, awful waxy stuff to a rich and flavourful delicacy. Here in the UK you can find wide varieties with taste profiles ranging from mild through mature, extra mature and vintage, all of which depend on the time the cheese has been allowed to mature. There is so much to do around Cheddar and Somerset generally, ranging from the gorge to the regency city of Bath and Glastonbury Tor (where there is a thorn tree allegedly grown from the staff of Joseph or Arimathea).

Hey - Thanks for reacting to our video - Some of our followers messaged and told us - The Cheddar cheese you all know was from this village and originally it was made in the caves. This video was made at the beginning or our adventures so funny to watch the old videos !! - we just spent the past year exploring North America :) - Have fun in the UK. - Chris & Marianne x

I grew up in Somerset, and been to Cheddar many times. There was no refrigeration 100's of years ago, and as the video says, the caves are the perfect temperature for maturing cheese. This is where the cheese gets its name.

Of course there is cheese, where do you think Cheddar cheese gets its name? The town wasnt named after the cheese!

We were visiting England in 2011 and friends of ours in Bristol took us by car through Cheddar Gorge on the way to Glastonbury. We didn't stop in the town of Cheddar, but we did see shaggy, long-haired goats standing halfway up some of the cliff faces inside the gorge. And yes, it was a lot like the older highways through the Smoky Mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas looked back in the 1960s when I was a child.

Smokey Mountains! Oh dear. I stayed overnight in Sevierville TN intending to drive into the Smokies the following day. Didn't make it. I had a heart attack instead and ended up in hospital in Knoxville. (Thank goodness for travel insurance!!!) That was 23 years ago and I'm still fine so a great big thank you to the medical team in that Tennessee hospital. I've yet to make that trip to the Smokey Mountains but it's a long way from Australia 🙂. I have, however, been to Cheddar Gorge. The counties of Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall are among my favourite in the UK. Thank you for posting, ladies.

American reaction to the Cheddar Gorge: 'Why did you guys named a gorge after some cheese?'

Girls, I've lived in the UK for over 70 years and I still have places to see. Best you can hope for is to scratch the surface and see the most popular locations. Good luck!

Cheddar gorge is a mecca for English cheese lovers It a great place to visit.

That's so funny! I've only just finished a series of books set in Somerset, and one of them was based in Cheddar, with the gorge, caves, Jacob's Ladder and the cliff walk featuring heavily. You know cheddar cheese was named after this area, right? The town wasn't named after the cheese! Great video, as always. Love you two x

True cheddar cheese has to come from cheddar caves as the Name has legal protection under the United nations produce geographical protection regulation. This also includes Melton Mowbray Pork pies from Leicestershire england

Somerset in general is a fantastic county to visit, OK Cheddar is a bit touristy and Glastonbury is the same , but the Mendip Hills, which is where Cheddar is situated, The Quantock Hills and between them The Somerset Levels make for a very varied county. Oh, and the people are incredibly friendly. It's one of my favourite counties, although it is a bit overlooked by people in a rush to reach to reach Devon and Cornwall. Well worth a visit.

Many countries in Europe age cheese and some meat products in caves. Certainly France, Spain and Italy do as well as the UK. They’re cool, dark, deep and have natural microbes etc to help with age, taste and even adding blue veins to the product.

A little true story for you... When i was about 20 there was a group of about 15 of us that used to hang around together in a Wiltshire town. One day one of our group called around and asked if i had seen two of our friends because nobody had seen them for a few days and they werent at home. We started asking around but nobody had seen them. That night on the local news there was a camera shot of 2 motorcycles parked outside a cave at Cheddar and there was a search and rescue operation in action because somebody had reported that the bikes had been outside the cave for a couple of days. Of course we all recognised those bikes! It was a big relief (and hilarious) when they were found cold and wet after spending 3 days and nights lost in the caves but to this day they have never lived it down. We are all now in our 50's and they are still refered to as Chris Cheese and Andy Cheese to anybody that knows them. Andys own kids don't even call him dad. He's known to them as "Cheddar" and they weren't even born when it happened. 😂 That's how deep banter runs to a Brit.

I love the cheddar caves. It's like being in a Fantasyland. I put my hand in a pool of water and it was so soft that it didn't even feel wet. I tasted it and it was sweet and it was so pure and clean that I could drink it straight from the pool. ✌️♥️🇬🇧

Morning girls. I live in Cheddar, and the South West of England is a beautiful place.

Cheddar is 40 minutes away from me, half an hour on a good day. Cheddar Gorge is so pretty and very dog friendly, so we take our dog whenever we visit. Yes, both the Cave-Aged Cheddar and Marshfield Ice Cream (also West Country) are delicious. In Somerset, we say Cheddar Cheese isn't proper Cheddar, unless it's made in a 30 mile radius of Cheddar town. I highly recommend visiting the rest of Somerset, including Glastonbury (witch town, home of the Tor and one of the UK's largest music festivals), Bath (Jane Austen, Roman Baths), Wells (England's Smallest City and film set of Hot Fuzz) and the Quantocks (Dunster Castle, West Somerset Railway and part of the Exmoor National Park). Wookey Hole, a village with Caves also, is just down the road from Cheddar too.

I came from Somerset I lived just down there road from here the gorge is amazing and that's why so many people come to visit I used to go caving on the Mendip hills It's one of best place to visit in the world

I've been to Wookey Hole nearby. One of things pointed out, beyond the constant temperature in either summer or winter, was that the Stalactites had a thick black line indicating when they used to burn torches for light.

Cave aged cheddar cheese is absolutely yummy. I highly recommend it.

I went to cheddar gorge last year, for the first time. I'd never seen pics of it beforehand and was overwhelmed when i went! It's one of the most awesome places you can visit in the uk. The caves in the area are well worth a visit too.

Good morning ladies 😘 A story from my childhood. My mum and dad were in the Cheddar Caves, crawling through the old cave system when my mum, who was in front, panicked and declared She was stuck! So, my dad bit her bum and she shot through the narrow place. Typical of my dad 😊

The first recorded cheddar cheese from Cheddar England dates back to the 12th Century, the Cheddar village was called Cheddar because in old English Cheddar comes from the word ceodor meaning deep dark cavity. The caves looked so cool, never been, looks great. i would love to get out of towns and cities and just live in a little village like this in the country.

I am a proud Welshman, but also of Somerset ancestry we have traced my family history back to the 1620's in the village of Coxley south of Cheddar between Wells and Glastonbury. Love that part of the World.

Somerset is a beautiful county with high places like Cheddar Gorge, and then low places like the Somerset Levels, which become flooded. I Have just moved from near London to Somerset and live in the south of the county. The last time I visited Cheddar Gorge was sixty years ago, when I was at school in the next county, Dorset.

Good morning ladies I live in cheddar and my family own a b&b next village over so when you get over we can sort you with a room to explore this area not far away from Glastonbury or bath or Bristol

Don't forget you got to try real Summerset scrumpy Cider with your Cheddar cheese in a ploughman's. Lovely anytime.

The caves are picked because they have just the right temperature and humidity for the cheese. On the subject of cheese (iLOVE IT!) many cheeses had to by law be made from pasteurised milk. There are many that do not and they ask all their customers to keep it secret! In London, Jeremy Street, there is a cheese shop, all it sells is just cheese! Every type and nationality, over 200 in all! The whole building wreaks of cheese! I'm sure there must be somewhere within San Francisco, with all the many national areas, Little Italy, China Town etc Just love Fresh Cheese, with real crusty bread and a pint of English Beer! to die for!

Morning ladies. So happy to see Cheddar Gorge coming up. Haven't been there for years but still remember how lovely it was.

Having family who live equidistant between Yeovil and Cheddar is a blessing. I get to visit whenever I want. Never gets old. Cheese on one side, cider on the other. Bliss. The scenery is quite nice too.

years ago you cou;d also buy scrumpy goes so well with cheese

Stunning, there is also similar caves in South Wales in the Brecon Beacons national Park called DAN-YR OGOF Caves which also has Dinosaur Park

If you like this, you may like Bourton in the Water (which has a model village based on the village, including its own model village in a model village ad infinitum. You might also like the Plym Valley railway (our grown son, Jack, works there)

I'm amazed that someone who once lived in Cheddar calls it a town, Cheddar is a village.

I loved the video . Very informative and you two are fantastic

Watching this video after having come from the refrigerator downstairs and noticing I had completely run out of my block of cheddar cheese 😢Oh the ironic timing of this upload!!! 😭

My home county I still live in Somerset 👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧

I live in Somerset about half an hour from Cheddar. My friend owns the mouse hole cafe. Nice place to visit if you get the chance. Somerset has a lot to see

Can’t wait for you to come over, hopefully will get to meet you at some point, and me and my American partner can show you around my home county of Nottinghamshire, or York where I used to live, or the Peaks near where we live now Thought you’d enjoy this video, I briefly worked making Stilton in my late teenage years - something can only be called Stilton here (and in the EU - still applies) if it’s made within a small area of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire (it’s like Champagne in the Champagne region and of course Cheddar in Cheddar…)

Love your videos, you have a new subscriber 🎉. I live 5 miles away from Cheddar Gorge, so was thrilled to find you had a look at it, you should have popped in for a ‘Cuppa!’. 💕

At 03:05 there's a road sign asking drivers to be careful , at the top of that sign is a picture of the medieval cross thing further into the village.........that was, a few years ago, partially demolished by a taxi. Probably why they put it on the sign....🤔

We went in our camper van and stayed on a site after Covid. It was lovely you can hike up the gorge and can actually see Glastonbury Tor, it wasn’t madly overrun with tourists it’s stunning. Wild goats are a bit stinky though 😂 Get to The New Forest as well

I was there a few years ago and if you paid an extra £40or £50 you could go adventure caving with a guide into much deeper parts of the caves that are out of bounds and it was amazing squeezing through little gaps that feel claustrophobic only to crawl out into huge spaces like being inside of a church full of stalagmites, along the way the guide leaves little tags in specific spots so if something goes wrong they know where you was last. It was well worth the money and anybody reasonably fit can do it, we were in the caves for almost an hour and a half all told and on that day it was just the guide my girlfriend and myself.

I lived there but yes plenty of tourists but you ha e to have them for the funds, what you may not see is the quarry truck that drive around & the big trucks that go thru to Wells, Wookey & Glastonbury 🇬🇧🇬🇧👍👍

I live in Thailand but when ever I go back to England I always visit Cheddar, the cheese is keep in the caves because the temp all year around stay about 60F. It's better in the off season. I love to talk with the older locals who have so many stories, drink a pint of scrumpy. Walk up the Gorge. But if you do get to that area don't miss Wookey Hole caves, and museum only 8 miles away.

Thank you ladies. It's been a few decades since I drove through the Gorge and I always regret we didn't stop as we were on our way to somewhere else. Every video I learn something new with you two.

Cheese and Wine are stored in caves, for cheese, it is stored in caves because of the constant cold temperature of the caves, even in summer. There were no refrigeration units at the time so it quickly went off. Now it's stored there because of the unique flavour that the caves bring to the cheese

So here is a guy from The Netherlands home of the cheese called Gouda 🙂 Yes Gouda is a place in the province South Holland in The Netherlands and the area around it has lots of grassy meadows for black and white cows to roam around and eat the fresh grass 🙂 These cows produce ample milk to which "stremsel" is added. Stremsel is basically some specific bacterial culture that makes the proteins (and fat) separate from the whey (milk fluid). After a while the protein mass is pressed together in specific forms and the fresh cheese is there. It is white at that moment and soft and every cheese will go through specific additional steps to make the different kinds of cheeses. The duration of each step and the circumstances of maturation determine the specific taste and mouth-feel. During maturation the cheese will harden and some cheeses as rubbed with a saline solution, some are getting stabbed with blue molds or smeared with white molds and others are covered with herbs and spices 🙂 Cheese can be stored and matured in shacks, caves (as they have a constant temperature and moist percentage and in some caves the cheese gets molded which adds to the specific taste. Dutch Gouda cheese is matured in the form of big "wheels" and covered in a thin plastic layer and matures to "Young" , "Medium matured", "Matured" to "Old" and finally "crumble - brokkelkaas" (from short to long term maturation). Each step older adds to the taste and character of the cheese.

Cave cheese is amazing! It's so strong and tasty. Living so close, we eat it all the time

Cheddar is the #1 in my book, and I love so many types. On that, Roquefort is a beautiful veined cheese from the caves of Roquefort in France. I somehow am not surprised that your faces registered the thought that "are you sure cheese isn't just manufactured in a factory, to flavour order, really"?

We drove down the gorge, stopped at this little siding and I got out to take a photo of the sheep.. fell sideways on to my arse because it's so steep 😂

And it is Burns Night. Haggis for supper. With Cheddar Cheese the real stuff.

So much to do around Somerset and on holiday down the road from Cheddar there was so much fresh produce you, were spoilt, great destination.

The smell of cheeses in that cave are heavenly! And yes cave matured cheeses have a gorgeous different flavour. Once you’ve been to cheddar about 90 mins drive is Weymouth at the heart of the Jurassic coast, stunning beach and coastal area

I live in the south of Bristol about a 30 minute drive to cheddar in the winter a bit longer in the summer with all the tourists

Ive seen The Smokey Mountains on tv and yes I know what you mean .: )

Everything good in life needs to age to reach perfection. Especially cheese.

Also Rockfort (french cheese) is aged in caves. Lov the show✌🏽❤

I am lactose intolerant too Natasha. British cheddar is extremely low in lactose as is our cottage cheese and I find that they don’t cause any issues. I have tried American cheddar but that gave me issues. We don’t tend to colour our cheddar so I think that also helps.

great video girls be bpth learnt new thing sin this video and look forward to your vlog when your in uk

Look as well at the nearby Wookey Hole - its another pre-historic cave system with victorian paper company museum and you can go on a guided scooba dive through the under water sections.

You've been to more places here than I have lol and I live here ❤️ I live in a tourist town and love seeing the tourists it's always busy here as I'm on the coast there's always a 'weekend' celebrating something - lifeboats - tractors - 60's music - 40's weekend - 80's music - folk week - Goth weekend - steampunk weekend etc I love it 👍

I has a very long night when I traveled to England the first time. I was assigned to a unit in RAF Mildenhall. As tired as I was, I was fully awake when three guys from my new unit showed up and drove me through the English country side at 55 mph on the "wrong side of a two lane road.

Loved watching this! I haven't been to Cheddar for 30 years so it was nice to see things that I still remember from all those years ago. Makes me want to go back and explore it all again!

I love when she says that people come from all over the world so let's go across the road here !!. I guess that they world comes only to one side of the road then .

I’m from Bristol which isn’t too far from Cheddar, & I’ve been there so many times over the years - I loved visiting the caves when I was a child. The last time I went to Cheddar was with my husband, daughter & dad, sadly my dad & hubby are both gone now, so I am hoping to take my daughter, son-in-law & my granddaughter when she’s a bit older & can appreciate the beauty of the gorge ❤ I’m allergic to milk, so I cannot eat the real stuff, but Natasha I’m not sure if you’re aware that the more aged the cheese the less lactose it contains - so you can eat vintage cheese, 18 months or older 🎉

Cheddar Gorge is our equivalent of the Grand Canyon (in miniature!) which explains the tourists! Plus who wouldn't want to say they've visited Wookey Hole!!! 🤣 The most famous cheeses in the world - from France, Italy and England - were all matured in caves - sometimes for years!

I live in Somerset (Taunton), less than an hour from Cheddar. If you come over I would be honoured to take you both there!

You have got to come over we have loads of places to visit in the UK, sadly Natasha if you don't drink the Highlands whiskey trail is not for you. It is advisable not to come during the school holidays in the UK as prices almost double and any tourist attraction is crowded.

When I was a kid we went to the caves but there wasn't all the lights and stuff mind you that was about 50 years ago the best thing was when they turned the lights off and you experienced complete darkness very earie

“Cheddaring is a unique process in making cheddar cheese that involves stacking "loaves" of curd on top of one another in order to squeeze additional whey out of the loaves below. It is a multi-step process that reduces whey content, adjusts acidity, adds characteristic flavour, and results in a denser and sometimes crumbly texture”.

I live in Somerset but haven't been there for yrs can remember going up Jacobs ladder as a child was easy back then now I'm nearly 50 I think I would stop a few times to have a breather lol

I love going to cheddar to see cheese made and also seeing sweets nade

Well, I've never ever been to Cheddar but I'm going to go now. Looks great.!!

I live near cheddar and locally its more famous for its strawberries and the Sunday car boot sale lol

yup, been to/through/over the Smoky Mountains

we can all buy houses and be neighbours here haha ; ) I love cheese so much! : p

I visited cheddar caves when I was in school! That’s over 65 years ago! There were no gimmicks it was just natural! Not commercial

274 steps up Jacob's Ladder,and you thought 199 steps was bad enough in Whitby! LOL

Hi i live in Somerset .a small seaside called weston super mare.a few miles from chedder a beautiful place ....your reaction to them driving made me laugh .. really enjoy your channel

Hello from cheddar! So weird to see this in my RU-vid feed! One of my family members helped make that mural!

Cheese is matured in caves in many places around the world. It is believed to have both temperature and humidity ideal for the cheese.

Cheese was made well before refrigeration was invented. All over the UK and Europe cheese was matured in caves.

Just a note, west country ice cream is a different world, better than any other.

Cheddar is also famous for its strawberry 🍓yes I have it so delicious

I visit cheddar regularly and in the summer it is a mecca for motorcycles to ride through the gorge most weekends, as I'm one of them. There are also Wookey hole caves nearby which is another popular attraction.

Great place to Visit.. Probably one of the nicest cheese I ever had was the cave matured cheddar.

Last went about 1977, dad parked up on the side of the road and I pulled a piece of flint out of the earth next to the car. Turned out to be a Neolithic hand tool. Still have it.

Hi Girls, Thanks for another great Reaction, if you ever get a chance please try some real cheddar and compare it with what you laughingly call cheese in the states, I've tried both and I know you will be pleasantly surprised🌮

Around the top of the gorge are three species of tree (Sorbus) that only grow in this area. They are protected because the populations are so small, about 20 plants in one case I believe.

Love you guys. We live under 5 minutes up the road from Cheddar. Please please please come and visit and say hi.

Great video ladies, and I loved the picture shown at 18:31 "Cheddar & Caerphilly cheese stores", as my home town is Caerphilly x

Great video, gals! You'll find in most supermarkets over here a selection of cheddars, usually based on how long it has been aged for. These days, with modern production techniques and mass production, usually cheese isn't aged in caves. I'm sure most exported cheeses aren't aged for that long but the best cheddar cheese (in my opinion, and most British people I know) are cheddars that have been aged longer. "Vintage aged" cheddar is the best! If it is slightly crumbly when you slice it, chances are its gonna be good! When it's been matured for longer, it has a slight more tang to it. ps: I eat way too much cheese!

They didn’t show you Lion Rock, half-way up the road, unfortunately. It’s a great place to visit, I’ve been there a few times, last time a couple of years ago.