Now there’s a loaded question! Once a rind on a cheese has been broken, its optimum condition will be on the day of purchase and it will slowly begin to deteriorate in the days after it was cut. Softer cheeses and blue cheeses will degrade faster than hard cheeses but as with any cheese, the shelf life can vary depending on how it is stored.

At The Cheshire Mercantile, we always wrap your cheese in waxed paper. This preserves a cheeses flavour and prevents it from drying out. We recommend that you do the same if you don’t intend on eating it on the day of purchase. If you intend on storing your cheese in cling film, it is best to replace the cling film each time. Cling film tends to alter the taste of a cheese and we would not recommend it.

As a general rule - whole, individual cheeses will last a couple of weeks at their optimum taste and cut cheeses will last between 7-10 days.

We recommend around a total of 100g per person or 130-150g per person if you’re particularly cheesy.

We can support you with your needs but as a rule of thumb you will probably want around 3-5 cheeses, displaying a variety of flavours and textures. There are a great variety of accompaniments that can be added to support your cheese that are dependent on the types of cheeses that you choose. We will be glad to discuss any of your questions in the shop.

Most of the time the answer is yes. However, some are more palatable than others! Many soft cheeses have a natural rind that compliments the flavour and texture of a cheese and should definitely be considered. Harder cheeses vary in their rind taste. Whilst most of them can be eaten, some will not be particularly enjoyable. The only inedible rinds are cheeses that have a waxed rind and these should be discarded.

Most cheeses use animal rennet to coagulate the milk during the first steps of the cheesemaking process. Animal rennet comes from the fourth stomach of a calf. For those of you seeking cheeses not made with animal rennet, some cheeses are made with microbial varieties of yeasts and moulds that have been artificially altered to produce the rennet enzyme. Whilst not common amongst traditional british cheeses, we do our best to carry cheese products for vegetarians.

We’ve all heard of Louis Pasteur, the man who discovered that microorganisms can cause disease. Many cheeses are pasteurised (heated to 72 degrees for 15 seconds) to eliminate any unwanted pathogens from entering the cheesemaking process. It is a requirement for food safety standards for many large scale organisations.

Does this mean that unpasteurised milk is bad? In a word, no. For smaller, farmstead cheese makers who can fully verify the quality and source of their milk, unpasteurised cheeses are fairly common. Whilst pasteurisation kills any unwanted pathogens, it also kills many of the good bacteria that help to produce the unique flavours, textures and qualities that go into the making of a cheese.

It is a common misconception that all milk needs to be pasteurised to eliminate ever-present pathogens. If a cheesemaker directly knows the source of the milk and all necessary food safety precautions are taken during milking/delivery then there is no reason for pathogens to be present in the milk. Therefore, cheese can be made without pasteurisation.

Vegan cheese is a fairly new addition to the family of cheese. At present, it is hard to find products that have not been mass produced using ingredients that have travelled vast distances. For this reason, we currently do not sell any vegan cheese. That is not to say we are against vegan cheese. New products are being created all the time and if we find a good one that fits in with our aims, we will endeavour to carry it.

Like with the word ‘natural’, large corporations and supermarkets like to distort the words ‘artisan’ and ‘farmhouse’ to use them as a marketing strategy. For us, artisan farmhouse cheese is produced by the individual cheesemaker, using locally traceable milk under traditional conditions in order to create the cheese.

The UK government often likes to change its stance of what dairy products can and can’t be eaten during pregnancy but in a nutshell, yes. The main worry here (although very rare) is listeria which can cause miscarriage and severe illness in a newborn. Listeria is a pathogen that likes to grow in high moisture and low acidity. For that reason, it is recommended that mould-ripened, soft cheeses, semi-soft and blue cheeses are avoided during pregnancy. Hard cheeses are fine to eat during pregnancy as the moisture content is too low to cause a problem. If you are unsure of whether a cheese is aged enough to ensure safety, then please ask one of our team.

We do! We are big fans of Europe and further afield. That being said, there are many excellent products on offer for most categories right here in the UK that have a better environmental footprint and that support local economies and communities. Where no representation is produced in Britain for a certain product, we look to European producers. Providing that they meet our requirements for sustainability and small producers, we endeavour to bring them into our store.

We place a high emphasis on sustainable packaging where we are able to do so. We wrap all our cheeses in waxed paper which is not only better for the environment but it also makes the cheese preserve better too. Plastic bags are not given out in our shop. Instead we use paper bags which come from companies that focus on sustainability. Packaging for deliveries avoids the use of plastic wherever possible.

One of the main focuses for our business is to focus on local producers with traceability. For beer, this means local breweries, local production and offsetting for brewing practices. For cheese, this means working with non-industrial farms and small producers that care about their natural environment. No large scale, industrial cheeses but traditonal cheeses that are handmade slowly, with care. For all our other products, unless there is no representation for a category we focus on British products that don’t travel the vast amounts of miles that products from further afield can accrue.