A blue cheese for those who "don't like blue cheese", this Stilton from Colston Bassett is made exclusively for Neal's Yard Dairy. Softer, sweeter and more balanced than a "typical" blue cheese, it has a creamy, buttery paste, pierced with the delicate blue veins that are characteristic of Stilton.

Established as a cooperative in 1913, Colston Bassett Dairy is still owned by the milk suppliers and a few local residents.

It is one of only five dairies in the world that still produces Stilton – and the only one that continues the traditional process of pouring the curds from the vat into cooling vats entirely by hand, a crucial step in achieving a smooth, full-bodied cheese.

Milk is sourced from farms within a half-mile radius of the dairy, and head cheesemaker Billy Kevan is only the fourth in the position in the last hundred years.

Billy is a long-time friend of Neal's Yard Dairy, and he has worked with them for many years to develop the recipe for the Stilton we buy: a full-bodied, silky cheese with an elegant sweetness. In addition to making the cheese by hand, Billy uses traditional rennet in our Stilton, which gives it a longer, more multi-dimensional flavor – and the piercing (the process of literally piercing the cheese to allow air to enter to activate the mold) occurs later in the ripening process, when the curds have developed more, to achieve the right balance between a creamy, flavorful paste and a blue mold.