Cooleeney is a soft Camembert style cheese from just outside Thurles in County Tipperary, Southern Ireland and is made using pasteurised milk from the farms own herd of cattle.
Cooleeney comes with a pale-yellow paste, generally with some chalkiness at the centre, but when fully ripened the paste is soft and smooth. The flavour is creamy and buttery with hints of grass, flowers and wet pastures with distinguishable white mushroom notes coming through on the finish.
The Cooleeny farm is nestled in the heart of Tipperary’s countryside, home to clover rich grass and Cooleeney Farm’s herd of pedigree Friesian cows. Breda Maher, the cheese maker began making her bloomy-rind cheese Cooleeney in 1986 as a way to make a better living from the family dairy farm, cheese seemed like a good way to increase the value of the milk from the family’s herd and Cooleeney has thrived with the help of several generations of the Maher family ever since.
Cooleeny is delicious served as a cheese on a cheese board but these individual cheeses are also ideal to bake for a supper snack. Simply pop the cheese into a close fitting backing dish, drizzle with a good olive oil or stud with Rosemary and Garlic and serve with crusty bread.
