A sibling cheese

Crozier Blue is a sheep's milk blue cheese from Co. Tipperary. It is made by the Grubb family in Beechmount Farm. Sarah is now in charge of most of the operation, she is the daughter of Jane and Louis and the person responsible for making Cashel Blue and Crozier Blue available outside of Ireland. Like many second-generation cheese makers in Ireland, Sarah has set the vision of the company to expand beyond farmer's markets and sales in Ireland and England. She has been able to do this by balancing act of meeting a growing demand with a limited supply by automizing some of the procedures in making her cheese. In the case of these two gorgeous blue cheeses, the piercing of the wheels has been turn into a mechanical system and that allows for consistency in the production. This is good news for a small cheese makers, who has been gradually adapting and growing just as much as her milk production would mantain.

I personally love Crozier, because unlike Roquefort it is less salty and easier to pair with food. Roquefort is the standard of comparison for blue sheep's milk cheeses, however, that comparison misses the mark as Roquefort is not only a blue cheese, it is also a cultural production that grows and develops in caves with very specific conditions. The taste of Roquefort is more mineral than Crozier, this minerality can be described as a slight tingling inside of the mouth with an after taste of salt, almost like when licking a piece of rock salt. Crozier is in turn, less mineral, maybe even more fatty and moist than Roquefort, making it a milder cheese.

I love eating Crozier with quince paste or apple preserve. It is great for cooking too and can easily be used as a "gateway" blue cheese for those folks who find more intense blue cheeses intimidating. For more information visit their page here. You can also watch this Irish TV piece on the cheese at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM-IcP2miNc

The other cheese made my the Grubbs is Cashel Blue. You can follow Sarah on twitter at @CashelBlue and make sure you like them on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cashelblue