Cheese expert tips Northern Irish Young Buck for success

Young Buck, a new blue cheese developed in Northern Ireland by artisan producer Michael Thomson, has been listed among the top products of 2014.

Thomson's Young Buck, launched last year with Crowdfunding support, has been listed as one of three favourite tastes by cheese expert Patrick McGuigan in Fine Food Digest magazine's annual Pick of the Year survey.

Writing about Young Buck, launched under the Mike's Fancy Cheese brand, based at Newtownards in county Down, McGuigan says: "The raw milk blue cheese is made by former School of Artisan student Michael Thomson. He uses a Stilton recipe, so the cheese is rich and creamy with sweet and savoury notes and funky flavours just under the rind."

Thomson's idea was to develop a Stilton-style blue cheese. He overcame the reluctance of local banks to fund his plan by raising &pound80,000 through crowdfunding to become Northern Ireland's first raw-milk blue cheese manufacturer..

Thomson worked in an English dairy before returning to Northern Ireland to set up on his own. He now has a small unit at a business centre in Newtownards and has launched successfully the new cheese. He hopes to employ up to three people part-time when the cheese becomes available.

He has also gained experience from Neal's Yard Dairy, one of Britain's biggest artisan cheese businesses, and from working at the Arcadia in Belfast, Northern Ireland's award winning deli.

"During my time at the School of Artisan Food I had the opportunity to make cheese with some of the best cheesemakers in the country, such as Joe Schneider at Stichelton and Jamie Montgomery at Montgomery's," he says

Following his graduation in dairying he gained employment with Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, managing the making of three different award winning raw milk cheeses while evolving the recipes and creating his own blue cheese,a Stichelton cheese from unpasteurised milk sourced from a local farm.

He has his sights on winning business outside Northern Ireland particularly in Great Britain, where he believes there is a significant market opportunity.

"The idea of crowdfunding is ideal for a young entrepreneur like myself who hasn't any real security and little cash to invest. It gave me something to work towards."

Young Buck is now on sale in Britain through a range of customers including Neal's Yard.