I love cheese, and over the past few years I’ve been enjoying Neal’s Yard Dairy cheeses thanks to the great selection at Fox & Obel. Neal’s Yard Dairy sells artisanal cheeses from England and Ireland of all sorts — cow, goat, sheep, raw, pasteurized, hard, runny — any cheesy characteristic one could dream of. We went to the original location in Covent Garden (there’s another one at Borough Market) hoping to sample every cheese in the shop.

Inside, we were greeted with stacks and stacks of cheeses and a waft of moist, pungent air. In the U.S., cheese is so processed and sanitized and packaged it’s easy to forget that it’s a living, breathing thing. Okay, that might be a little misleading, but anyway, the bacteria, mold, and atmospheric conditions interact with the cheeses while they age to create their unique flavor characteristics, and the damp, cheesy air reminded me of the complex process required to make cheese.

The shop was crowded and the cheesemonger assigned to us was a rather dour fellow who didn’t seem too happy about slicing up a bunch of cheese for American tourists to sample, so it was really unfortunate that I only tried three cheeses before I felt compelled to make my purchase and leave. I should’ve stayed there till close since, duh, we’d flown across the ocean just to be there, but I think I was so excited to finally reach the mecca of British farmstead cheeses that I wasn’t thinking straight. But back to the cheese.

I tried St. Gall, a medium-soft raw cow’s milk cheese, which was tangy and slightly sweet. Another was Coolea, also a cow’s milk but pasteurized. This one was a little harder, like a gouda, and rich and mellow. My favorite was Kilcummin, firm raw cow’s milk, minerally and complex, almost like a wine. This one wasn’t old enough to be exported so I ended up buying the other two — and I’m still kicking myself for not buying a chunk anyway.

If you can find Neal’s Yard Dairy cheeses at a good local shop, I highly recommend the ones I just mentioned as well as all of their cheddars (Keen’s, Montgomery’s, and Westcombe) and their Colston Bassett stilton. My favorite of the cheddars is the Montgomery’s — I like the fruity, green, grassy flavors. The stilton is a must-try if you’re into the blue-veined cheeses.

On a related note, we noticed that the butter we had at every restaurant was really good — so much creamier, richer, and sweeter than American butter. Is it because British milk tastes better? Do they create their butter differently? I have no idea. If anyone knows, leave me a comment!