Editorial note: All information in this article is based on our June 2025 visit, as part of a larger article on Irish Cheese to be later featured in the Winter 2026 issue of Culture: The Word on Cheese Magazine. Please fact-check all details, figures, technical descriptions, and current business information directly with the cheesemaker before sharing or publishing.
Halfway up a hill, surrounded by the rolling green hills and mountains of West Cork, sits Coolea Farmhouse Cheese. It’s a beautiful, quiet setting for a cheese with an interesting story: a traditional Dutch-style Gouda made in the heart of Ireland.
The Willems family brought their cheesemaking heritage from Holland to Ireland in the 1970s. Helene and Dick Willems purchased their farm in 1979 and began making a cheese that would feel familiar to them while becoming something distinctly Irish. Within just a few years, Coolea was winning awards, including “Best Cheese in Ireland,” and it has continued to earn accolades ever since.
Today, the creamery is run primarily by second-generation cheesemaker Dick Willems, who has been working there daily since 1991. After finishing his morning cheesemaking, Dick greeted us at our car and led us through the facility, walking us through each step of the process. We got to see the milk tank, pasteurizer, cheese vat, presses, brine, and various aging rooms where their singular cheese, Coolea, develops its signature character.
Despite its reputation, Coolea remains a very small operation, with a team of just three or four people. The full-fat milk comes from a single herd of Holstein-Friesian cows just minutes down the road, thanks to a longstanding partnership with a local farmer. And unlike some dairies that make cheese year-round, Dick’s cheesemaking season follows the cows’ grazing season. For about seven months of the year, while the cows are out on pasture, the team makes cheese five or six days a week. They used to work all seven days, but even a good thing can become a bit much!
Coolea is a firm-to-hard cow’s milk cheese made in the Gouda tradition. As with other Goudas, the curds are washed with warm water during production, helping reduce acidity and lactose while shaping the cheese’s eventual flavor and texture. Dick hand-scoops the curds directly from the vat into molds, then presses the young wheels to remove additional moisture. After a bath in brine and time on the drying racks, each wheel receives a couple of hand-brushed coats of wax to prepare it for aging.
And that aging is where things get especially fun for cheese lovers. Coolea is sold at different ages, and each stage brings its own appeal. Younger wheels tend to be more savory and supple, while older versions develop deeper, sweeter flavors, including those delicious toffee-like notes that make an aged Gouda so irresistible. If you’ve ever tasted a Gouda that seemed almost caramelized, with little crunchy crystals developing as it ages, you know the magic we’re talking about.
What makes Coolea particularly special is the meeting of two places: Dutch cheesemaking tradition and the milk, landscape, and farming relationships of West Cork. It’s not trying to be a Dutch cheese made in Holland; it’s a Dutch-style cheese with an Irish home.
One thing to know before planning a visit: Coolea doesn’t have an official storefront for visitors, so you’ll want to seek out the cheese at independent cheese counters around Ireland, including Sheridan’s, as well as select grocers. In the UK, you can find it through Neal’s Yard Dairy, which also exports to specialty cheese counters around the world.
We loved getting a behind-the-scenes look at this small, focused operation and seeing the care that goes into each wheel. Coolea is a reminder that great cheese doesn’t always require a huge range or a big production facility. Sometimes, it takes one cheese, a strong sense of tradition, good milk, and a cheesemaker who has spent decades perfecting his craft.
Do Good. Eat Good.
— Kendall, Antonelli’s Cheese
More pics on the video I posted to Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLYO7dTyDi0/
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