Ashgrove Cheese

Walk in any day of the week to the Dairy Door at Ashgrove's Bass Highway visitor centre between Launceston and Devonport — watch the cheesemakers through glass panels, taste the County-style cheddars, the naturally wood-smoked range, and Mr Bennett's Blue Vein (named for founder John Bennett AM). Eat at the cafe: cheese toasties, three-cheese truffle and thyme pizza, structured tastings with paired wine flights, High Cheese in the afternoons. The Bennett brothers Michael and John, with their wives Maureen and Connie, formed the Ashgrove Farm partnership in 1983 to value-add their own milk; built the original cheese factory by hand in 1993 from upcycled mining equipment from Tasmania's North East. Still family-owned, still single-origin Tasmanian milk.