The cheese: soft raw goats cheese, made in Co Clare, Ireland
Bought from: Neals Yard Dairy
St Tola comes in big logs, and a slice of about a half-inch thickness makes my lunch. It’s got a soft yellow wrinkled rind, underneath which the cheese is almost liquid and oozes out onto the paper it came wrapped in. Further in there’s a clean white fluffy centre. St Tola is two cheeses in one; soft and squishy liquid around the edges, light and fluffy on the inside.
The rind, and the melting cheesy goo directly underneath it, tastes slightly of caramel and toffee and slightly of vanilla, soft and smooth and melting, sweet and nutty. Further in the cheese becomes fluffy, slightly crumbly, almost moussy in texture. It’s lemonish, lightly saltly, gently goaty – not too overpowering – and clean and fresh and bright.
Of course, the best part of this cheese is the contrast of tastes and textures; the sharp bright citrus tang inside with the caramel milkiness towards the rind, and the fluffy, cloudy innards with the smooth silky liquidity of the outer cheese. This cheese is delicious!
(Also, these are the goats that make the milk that make this cheese. Aren’t they cute little beasts?)