Our main aim is to keep in close contact with cheesemakers on one hand and customers on the other and above all to be in very close contact with all the cheese passing through our hands. We visit some cheesemakers very often; I select our cheddars by visiting the West Country every eight weeks and tasting through young cheese to select the batches that will be matured on for us. Apart from trying to find the best cheese available this is also when the cheesemaker can get a sense of how their cheeses are being received by customers.
Many of the cheeses we buy are either matured on the farm or in our own maturing rooms in Bermondsey which are in brick railway arches under the main line from London Bridge to Dover. The insulation provided by the venerable Victorian brick work helps us maintain good conditions for the cheese: humid and cool. A team of five take care of the cheese, turning the cheeses and sometimes brushing or washing them until they ripen.
