#8 - Jasper Hill Oma

Check out this sexy cheese! I was so pleased with how this one photographed - I think the warm colors look just gorgeous.

This Jasper Hlil Oma was one of three cheeses I served as part of my New Year's Eve spread. It has a strong flavor - strong enough that I had a hard time eating it just on its own for more than a couple of bites. It is creamy like a brie or camembert, but with a more biting taste that reminded me of mushrooms and lingers a bit after you take a bite. I found that I enjoyed it most when I paired it with a water cracker and some truffle honey. The truffle oil mellowed out the bitterness, and the sweetness of the honey paired wonderfully with the creamy insides.

The Cowgirls say:

"Oma is an approachable washed-rind cheese that is both mildly pungent and sweet. It is a semi-soft wheel with flavors of peanuts and chocolate, and undertones of rich cream. It is perfect alongside a thick Belgian dubbel ale and a dab of fig jam."

And on the Jasper Hill website, I learned that the two brothers who make this cheese are related to the Von Trapps! So this cheese is even a bit musical it would seem: 

"Vermont's hills are alive with the sound of "Oma!" Brothers Sebastian and Dan Von Trapp (yes, they are related to those Von Trapps) have just released Oma, an amazing new cheese from the Mad River Valley in Vermont.

A washed-rind raw cow's milk cheese, Oma's silky texture (soft and supple, but not runny) is perhaps its most unique feature. But its taste delivers too. The cheese is earthy, barnyardy, and buttery, and the raw milk makes for a complexity of flavor absent in most American cheeses of its ilk."Oma" is German for "grandmother," and the cheese is named after Sebastian and Dan's Oma, Erica Von Trapp, who started the family farm 50 years ago."