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Coolea is an extremely easy cheese to like.  It's the cheese equivalent of chocolate - rare to find someone who doesn't love it.  The chocolate comparisons don't end there in fact, the richness of its texture also brings milk chocolate to mind.  In terms of how it tastes, the appeal is immediate.  It has a striking sweetness that brings to mind salted butter caramels which then gives way to toasted hazelnuts and sometimes a resinous thyme or pine quality to the finish.  As it ages past 18 months, the sweetness diminishes slightly giving way to more richness and darker chocolate or milky coffee flavours.

Made by Dick Willems at the family farm outside Coolea, near Macroom, County Cork.  Dick's parents Helene and Dick Snr moved from Amsterdam to Ireland and began making chese in the early 1980s.  Their son Dick and his wife Sinead are now at the helm with their daughter Shona helping out too, from time to time.

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