What do we mean by Eat Them or Lose Them?
Many of the British Style cheeses that we sell are the last of their kind. Once they would have been made to sustain the families and workers of farms across a region but industrial cheesemaking has made their production more rare. We're fortunate that there are still people making these cheeses that reflect our unique climate, agricultural and economic history. In fact, there are even new producers taking up the mantle and reviving near lost recipes. We want to support them and the best way to do so is by eating them!
These are cheeses that lend themselves to simple, hearty, comfort-eating. It's one of the reasons we enjoy them so much. Just stripped back, delicious cheese.
Why British Territorials?
Territorial cheeses are traditional British styles rooted in farming and place; they are products of their environment, or 'terroir' and reflect our unique climate, agricultural and economic history.
The map below shows the locations of some of the British territorial cheesemakers we work with.
What is British cheese?
There is no cheese quite like British cheese. More specifically, the low-moisture, high-acid cheeses of Britain. As different as they may seem, Cheddar, Caerphilly, Cheshire, Lancashire, Stilton, and Wensleydale each have more in common with each other than you may think.
British cheese is crumbly
The texture of cheese has everything to do
with how acid the curd is when the moisture is being removed from it. For British Territorials, the whey is drained in an intricately choreographed dance as the curd acidifies. The curds are also run through a mill before being pressed into a wheel and a lot of that bittiness is actually the structure of the curd that’s been turned into tiny little bits in the mill.
British cheese is bright
Thanks to the complex microbiological processes that contribute to each wheel of cheese, this acidity can come through in a variety of ways. Over the course of several
weeks, Yoredale Wensleydale alone could taste yoghurty, lively, juicy, lemony, sour, or fresh. Acidity is just one note in a symphony, and some British cheeses let others sing. Colston Bassett Stilton has a bright, sweet base, but it is a blue cheese – and tastes like it.
British cheese is underrated
When we say British cheese is underrated, we mean styles of cheese that originated here. Our mission is to change that. We are proud to sell small-scale, farmhouse British cheese, from Appleby’s Cheshire to Colston Bassett Stilton. Taste a selection – you will find them all to be bright, crumbly, and uniquely British.