What Makes Us Different?

The Way We Work.

Ours is the only shop in Manchester purpose designed and built to create the best environment for Cheese - our entire shop floor is humidity and temperature controlled, giving our Cheeses the specific climate that is best for each to be in top condition and taste its best when it comes to you.

All our cheeses are expertly made by small independent Farms or Artisans - nothing mass produced, or from industrial farming, often multi-award winners and and individually graded on quality by ourselves or our partner Neal’s Yard Dairy to choose the best of the best.

We like to bring each cheese to life - every one has an individual story, whether it’s a cheese that has been newly created or made for many years. Its history, the method of its making, its local and regional influences, plus the journey of its maker are a core part to the way we work. It’s also why we always refer to the individual makers by name, highlighting the closeness of our partnership, and the intrinsic connection between Cheese and Maker. 

Our primary criteria for Cheese selection is Single Source Milk, which helps to guarantee quality, gives absolute traceability and also encourage the best animal welfare from our Cheesemakers - the best Cheese is made from the best milk, which only comes from the happiest, healthiest animals, eating the best grass, which grows on properly managed soil. Each stage of our chain requires careful nurturing and high ethics.

Many makers use traditional recipes going back centuries, made by hand by the same families for generations, using natural raw milk - for instance, partner in the business Graham Kirkham is the third generation to make Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire, the World’s last hand made and Farm produced raw milk traditional Lancashire, named one of Rick Stein’s Food heroes

Many, even well known cheeses, are ‘special recipe’ made uniquely, specifically for our partner Neal’s Yard Dairy, to give a depth and complexity of flavour you won’t find anywhere else. 

Often these special batches also receive ‘Affinage’ - further development like washing or drying of rinds, or extra maturation, to make a great cheese an exceptional one. 

Our cheeses are traditionally clothbound or open with their natural rind, allowing the Cheese to ‘breathe’ - our Cheeses are never pre cut or sealed in plastic, which can compromise the quality and flavour, and halt any further natural development of ripened Cheese.

They also receive a level of care you will only find in a few specialist Cheesemongers in the country - we are daily turning, tasting, and moving our cheeses into different temperatures and humidities to ensure they are the very best they can be.

We work seasonally, so our cheeses and accompaniments gradually change to reflect what is best at that point in the year, working intuitively with Nature - in particular our Goat’s & Sheep’s Cheeses usually have a much shorter season than commercially produced products, as each herd is only milked for a few months rather than year round, or on rotation. This also means there is wonderful variation in the same Cheeses depending whether they are made from Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter milk.

And this is why we believe a very important part of each customers visit to us is to taste any of the cheeses; seasonal variations, different levels of maturity, flavours that are new to you - we want to match your purchase to your own individual preferences and tastes, and also introduce you to a wealth of cheeses you might not have considered before.