Innes Button (Tamworth, Staffordshire)

Simplicity is key to this cheese: fresh, light and acidic are the only words necessary to describe the Innes Button goat’s cheese. The dairy and farm are meticulously run by Stella Bennett with her son Joe, who is now at the helm. One of the highlights for me is when I arrive at the shop early enough to say hello to Joe, who delivers the cheeses sometimes. His shock of red curly hair and cheery demeanour are a welcome start to our day!

The recipe is simple as the process starts immediately after milking with the warm unpasteurized milk quickly transformed with vegetarian rennet to produce soft and fragile curds as well as preserving the flavour synonymous with Innes’ cheeses. Since 1987, when they started with 100 goats, the herd has grown to 350, mostly crossed Saanen and Toggenburg. Around 220 nannies are milked morning and evening, each producing on average 3 litres (5¼ pints) of milk per day. In order to maintain production of the cheeses, kidding continues throughout most of the year, and the diet is carefully calculated in order to produce milk of the highest quality and also without any additives or pesticides. The delightful fresh, mousse-like tiny cheese is free of any rind, and as well as the plain version there are those with a coating of charcoal ash or fresh rosemary or a topping of pink peppercorns.