Made by Siobhan Ni Ghairbhith, near Inagh, Co Clare, Ireland

Soft Goats Cheese

Traditional Animal Rennet

Unpasteurised goats milk

The first people to make St. Tola were Derrick and Meg Gordon, who learned to make goat's cheese in Normandy and took frozen whey home to use as a starter. Today, Siobhan (a former primary school teacher) and her helpers make St. Tola out in County Clare. After apprenticing with Meg and Derrick for a year, Siobhan bought their Saanen, British Alpine and Toggenburg goats, carried on cheesemaking at the old facility, transferred all of the cheesemaking equipment over to her farm ("to keep the St. Tola spirit in them!" says Siobhan), and carried on. The cheese is a large cutting log with a lactic-sour but herbaceous flavour and moistly crumbly texture with a silky breakdown beneath its nutty wrinkled cream-white rind.