The Book & Bucket Cheese Company’s new limited edition cow’s milk brie-style cheese debuts in November, just in time for Christmas
The Book & Bucket Cheese Company in Cranborne, Dorset, has been working on a new limited-edition cheese for the upcoming festive season. Launching in November, Cranborne Dark Sky is a brie-style cheese made from cow’s milk, featuring a delectable layer of dark truffle running through its core. Rather than adding the truffle at the end of the cheesemaking process, the layer is incorporated into the curds during production, allowing the rich truffle flavour to permeate the entire cheese. Customer and chef requests have driven the development of this cheese, which underwent various stages of testing for over a year.
Peter Morgan, the founder of The Book & Bucket Cheese Company, turned to social media for help in naming the new cheese. In recognition of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty where the dairy is situated – as well as the area’s recent designation as an International Dark Sky Reserve – followers were asked to choose between two names: Cranborne Dark Sky and Cranborne Reserve. With more than 75 per cent of the votes, Cranborne Dark Sky won.
The cheese is now ready for launch and will be available for purchase on The Book & Bucket Cheese Company’s website and for wholesale orders starting in November 2023.
A rapid rise
Founded in 2019, The Book & Bucket Cheese Company initially offered a small range of artisan sheep’s milk cheeses, each named after famous authors. They swiftly gained popularity among local hospitality establishments, delis and farm shops. However, when the pandemic struck in March 2020 and the hospitality sector temporarily closed, the company faced a quiet order book.
In response, The Book & Bucket Cheese Company collaborated with a local farmer grappling with excess cow’s milk and utilised the downtime to develop a new range of cow’s milk cheeses. Over the following year, despite the pandemic’s challenges the company doubled its cheese offerings.
Now, in 2023, The Book & Bucket Cheese Company is thriving, with many of its cheeses earning prestigious national and international awards. Several of their products have received accolades from the Great Taste awards, Taste of the West Awards, Artisan Cheese Awards, and three cheeses have been honoured at the international World Cheese Awards. Among them, the Shakespeare cheese earned the coveted World Cheese Awards Gold Award.
Most recently, in September Book & Bucket was recognised in the national 100 Taste Awards at Tate Modern, which celebrate the most outstanding food companies and enterprises each year.
Peter Morgan expressed his excitement in the new cheese, stating, ‘What is now called Cranborne Dark Sky has been on my to-do list for a few years. I have trialled a number of different ideas – in my head, I wanted something that hit the spot both visually and flavour-wise. The whole team are so happy and proud of Cranborne Dark Sky.
‘We’re confident this will be a cheese that will become a must on every cheeseboard!’
