A Welsh-made Cheddar cheese with rich, layered flavours and a supple texture, Hafod is generally found to be less acidic than our other Cheddars. Rather than being clothbound, as it previously was, the cheese is now allowed to develop a natural rind; its inside reveals a warmly golden paste and the occasional blue vein.

Natural rind.

*Please note that we sell both a pasteurised and a raw milk version of this cheese. The cheese you receive will be labelled with the appropriate milk treatment.

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Close up of a large cut of clothbound Hafod Cheddar cheese showing the texture of the golden paste

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Cheesemaker Rob Howard looks to historical sources for inspiration, and makes Hafod according to methods described in the classic manual Practical Cheddar Cheese-making, written in 1917.

Location

Ceredigion, Wales

Our work with this cheese

We visit Holden Farm Dairy three times a year, tasting four months' worth of cheese at around 6-10 months of age. We also taste very young cheeses, helping Rob to collect information on the impact of his recent experiments. He then uses this information to guide the evolution of the methods. Sam and Rachel Holden have been making Hafod on Sam's father Patrick's farm near Lampeter, Ceredigion since August 2007. The cheese is now made by Tessa and her team at the farm of Patrick and Becky Holden near Ceredigion in Wales.

Formerly a clothbound cheddar, Becky Holden and Rob Howard (now making cheese at Westcombe Dairy) began experimenting with natural-rinded cheeses a couple of years ago, to see the impact of the cloth. They found they, along with Neal's Yard Dairy's buying team, preferred the flavour development of those cheeses that were not clothbound. This led to the decision to produce only natural-rinded cheeses from February 2019 onwards.