Cheese and History in One (or more) Bite: Caerphilly

Caerphilly cheese. Have you heard of it? Welsh in origin, it's one of the lesser known British Isle cheeses--at least here in the States. I had my first bite in the 2010s while attending a cheese science conference in Somerset, England. Somerset is a prime dairying area in South West England. In fact the conference was held at the family home of Jamie Montgomery right next to the well-known and very delicious Montgomery Cheddar company. At the time, I'd heard and written about Caerphilly, but never tasted a real British one. (Interestingly, Somerset is where two of the best known Caerphilly makers, Duckett's (pictured above) and Gorwydd Caerphilly, are made. Although, the Trethowan brothers, who developed Gorwydd, did so on their family farm in Wales before relocating production to England.