Price range: £5.05 through £30.30
Crozier Blue is a rich and creamy Irish sheep’s milk blue made by the family behind Cashel Blue. Naturally sweet and wonderfully smooth, the richness of the sheep’s milk is balanced by salty blue veining and a gentle peppery spice.
Crozier Blue is the sheep’s milk sibling of Cashel Blue, made by the same Grubb family at Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers in County Tipperary. But change the milk and you get a very different cheese.
If you know Roquefort PDO, you’ll recognise something of that wonderful combination of rich sheep’s milk and salty blue, although Crozier has very much developed its own Irish character. It’s creamy, full-flavoured and beautifully balanced, with the natural sweetness of the milk sitting alongside the savoury, peppery blue.
The Grubbs had already helped pioneer farmhouse blue cheesemaking in Ireland when they created Cashel Blue in 1984. Crozier followed in the early 1990s when they turned their attention to sheep’s milk. I, for one, am very glad they did.
Crozier is made with sheep’s milk rather than the cow’s milk used for Cashel, and tasting the two alongside each other is a brilliant way to see just how much difference the choice of milk can make.
Sheep’s milk is naturally rich in fat and protein, which gives Crozier its wonderfully creamy texture and concentrated flavour. Against that richness, the blue brings saltiness, savoury depth and a gentle spice.
There’s a family resemblance between Cashel and Crozier, but they certainly aren’t the same cheese. Cashel has that lovely buttery cow’s milk character; Crozier feels richer and denser, with a distinctive sweetness from the sheep’s milk.
If you’re feeling particularly dedicated to your cheese education, I can thoroughly recommend buying a piece of both and doing the research yourself.
The name Crozier has a lovely connection to both the cheese and its home in County Tipperary.
A crozier is the hooked staff traditionally carried by a bishop or abbot, its shape derived from the shepherd’s crook. The name also connects the cheese to nearby Cashel and its religious history, including the famous Rock of Cashel.
For a sheep’s milk cheese made in this part of Ireland, it seems a rather appropriate name.
Crozier Blue is rich and creamy with a lovely salty tang from the blue, balanced by the natural sweetness of the sheep’s milk.
The texture is smooth and almost melting when it has had enough time out of the fridge. Taste it slowly and you’ll find gentle peppery spice, a little nuttiness and sometimes something slightly toasty alongside all that creamy richness.
What I particularly like is the way the flavour builds. The blue doesn’t simply hit you all at once; you get the sweetness and richness of the milk first and then the saltier, more savoury flavours begin to appear.
If you like Roquefort, there will be things here that feel familiar, but Crozier isn’t trying to be an Irish version of a French cheese. It’s very much its own thing — and a very good thing at that.
Jen’s note: If you’ve got Cashel Blue and Crozier Blue in front of you, taste them side by side. They’re made by the same family using the same blue-cheesemaking know-how, but one uses cow’s milk and the other sheep’s. It’s one of the tastiest ways I know to understand just how much the milk matters.
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Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, salt, starter cultures, rennet, Penicillium Roqueforti
Normal opening Monday – Saturday 9am – 4pm until:
Sunday 22nd 9am – 4pm
Monday 23rd 9am – 4pm
Christmas Eve 9am – 12pm
Christmas Day Closed
Boxing Day Closed
Friday 27th Closed
Saturday 28th 9am – 4pm
Sunday 29th Closed
Monday 30th 9am – 2pm
Tuesday 31st 9am – 2pm
New Year’s Day Closed
Thursday 2nd January Closed
Friday 3rd 9am – 4pm then open as normal
After Christmas our courier delivery slots start from 8th January.
