Price range: £3.60 through £21.60
Smoked Gubbeen is a wonderfully creamy Irish farmhouse cheese with buttery, savoury flavours and a beautifully balanced natural smokiness.
Smoked Gubbeen is one of those cheeses where the smoking really feels as though it belongs.
Made by the Ferguson family at Gubbeen Farm in West Cork, Ireland, it starts life as their wonderful farmhouse cheese before being gently smoked, adding another layer of flavour to an already characterful cheese.
Underneath the smoke you’ve still got everything that makes Gubbeen so good: rich cow’s milk, a supple texture and lovely savoury flavours. The smoke simply makes it a little deeper, warmer and, if anything, even more moreish.
The Ferguson family began making cheese at Gubbeen Farm near Schull in West Cork in the late 1970s, becoming part of the revival of Irish farmhouse cheesemaking.
One of the things I particularly love about Gubbeen is how connected everything is to the farm. The milk comes from their own herd and the cheese is made and matured there, so this really is farmhouse cheese in the truest sense.
The farm sits close to the Atlantic coast, where West Cork’s mild climate and lush pastures provide wonderful grazing for the cows.
And Gubbeen isn’t simply made there.
It’s smoked there too.
That makes Smoked Gubbeen feel less like somebody has taken a finished cheese and decided to add smoke to it, and more like a cheese that’s been created as part of the whole Gubbeen story.
Smoked Gubbeen is cold-smoked so that the cheese can take on the flavour of the smoke without being cooked.
The smokiness is strongest towards the outside, becoming gentler as you work your way towards the creamy centre. That means one slice can give you several slightly different experiences depending on which bit you eat.
And that’s exactly what I want from a smoked cheese.
The smoke should add something — not make every mouthful taste the same.
Smoked Gubbeen has a lovely supple texture: firm enough to slice but beautifully creamy once you start eating it.
The first flavours are buttery and slightly sweet, followed by the more savoury character of the cheese. I get toasted nuts, earthiness and a little mushroom before that lovely smoke begins to come through.
Towards the rind, everything becomes deeper and more savoury, while the middle remains gentler and creamier.
What I particularly like is that the smoke doesn’t disguise Gubbeen. You can still taste the milk and the cheese underneath it.
There’s a lingering warmth at the end which makes it extremely difficult not to go back for another piece.
Jen’s note: I love that the name Gubbeen comes from the Irish gobín, meaning ‘little mouth’. Rather appropriate for a cheese that seems to disappear one little mouthful at a time!
Sizes and Prices
Storage Advice
Delivery and Collection
Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, salt, starter cultures, rennet, natural smoke
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.
