Five cheesemaker-farmers from Munster celebrate Great Taste Awards

Irish Examiner

a day ago

Munster cheesemaker-farmers are celebrating, after a string of top awards in the Great Taste 2025 championship.
Five cheesemakers, from Tipperary to West Cork, were among the top echelon of 273 that secured three-star awards out of 14,340 Great Taste entries, from more than 3,611 companies across 110 countries.
J&L Grubb
• Three award-winning cheeses this year bring J & L Grubb Ltd/Cashel Blue to a growing tally of Great Taste awards.
They have been have been hand-crafting the original Irish farmhouse blue cheese and other cheeses on their family farm near Fethard, Co Tipperary, for 40 years.
'A great endorsement, it seems Tipperary is on a roll', was their reaction, when they received three stars for both their Crozier Blue and Cashel Blue cheeses in the 2025 Great Taste Awards.
That puts both in the top 1.9% of the products from around the world that go through a rigorous blind-judging by more than 500 industry experts, including chefs, food critics, technologists, retailers, and food writers.
Jane and Louis Grubb of Cashel Blue Cheese in Co Tipperary receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Food Writers Guild in March of this year. Picture: Paul Sherwood
The judging process takes more than 110 days, at venues in England, Ireland, and Italy.
Cashel Blue, created by Jane and Louis Grubb, comes from the cows on Beechmount Farm. It was also a three-star winner in 2024, and one of three one-star winners for the company in 2023, along with Signature Tastes Cashel Blue and Specially Selected Cashel Blue.
This year, there was also a one-star Great Taste award for Deluxe Mature Cashel Blue.
Crozier Blue cheese comes from the milk of Friesland ewes on the Co Wicklow farm of George and Hannah Finlay.
Toons Bridge Dairy
• Also 'over the moon' after this year's Great Taste Awards were Toby Simmonds and Jenny-Rose Clarke of the Toons Bridge Dairy at Kilbarry, Macroom, Co Cork.
The Greek-style cheese that they recently started making in their dairy from the milk of their herd of water buffalo was awarded three stars.
There was a two-star award for the cultured butter made from the cream left behind after making fior di latte (mozzarella made from cow's milk, rather than from buffalo milk). The butter contains all the cultures of traditional mozzarella-making.
There was a one-star award for the loomi frying cheese made with cow's milk and vegetarian rennet at Toons Bridge Dairy, using milk purchased from local dairy farms.
The Toons Bridge Dairy team said: 'Thank you so much to the wonderful team in our cheese room and the packers, order fillers, van drivers, invoice writers, patient neighbours, buffalo milkers, cows' milk suppliers, milk collectors, fence fixers, boiler repairers, well pump fixers, whey collectors, slurry tank emptiers, lime spreaders, hay savers, to mention just a few, and not forgetting the amazing buffaloes and cows that produce the beautiful milk it all begins with. It really does take a village!'
Their other business, The Real Olive Company, importers and producers of authentic Mediterranean olives, oils, pastes, cheeses, meats, and fish, earned a two-star award this year for Garlic And Fresh Thyme Dressed Olives, and a one-star award for their 12-year balsamic vinegar.
Macroom Buffalo Cheese
• Also in the Macroom area, three stars were awarded to the Macroom Buffalo Ricotta from Macroom Buffalo Cheese Products, Kilnamartyra, a long-standing Irish high performer in the Great Taste Awards.
Having imported 31 buffaloes from Northern Italy and started making buffalo cheese in 2009, the Lynch family opened a state-of-the-art production facility on their main farm 10 years ago, to produce the largest range of buffalo cheese and yoghurt in Ireland from the milk of their much-expanded herd of grass-fed buffalo. Their herd of over 750 buffalo is spread across 640 acres in the Macroom area.
Durrus Cheese
• There were three stars also for Durrus Óg, a cheese made by Durrus Cheese, near Bantry in West Cork.
Jeffa Gill began making cheese on her farm in 1979 and, 46 years on, the Durrus Cheese range is still made by hand.
Cooleeney Cheese
• Cooleeney Cheese, Thurles, were also among the Great Taste 2025 winners, awarded two stars for Gleann Óir, and one star each for Darú and Signature Tastes Cooleeney Cheese.
There are two stars also this year for the St Tola Karst product from Inagh Farmhouse Cheese, Ennistymon, Co Clare.
Only 1,508 of the 14,340 Great Taste entries secured two-star status.