#36 - Jasper Hill Farm - Bayley Hazen Blue

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I don't like to sound too excited when I write these posts, because -- let's be real -- I get jacked up about just about every cheese I try. But honestly, I really, REALLY liked this one -- Jasper Hill Farm's Bayley Hazen Blue.

I have posted cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm previously (Hartwell a few weeks ago, and Oma back in 2014), and when we took a trip up to Burlington, Vermont a few weekends back, I came across the name again in one of the local guide magazines we picked up. I read that in particular, their Bayley Hazen Blue had won awards and was a notable American blue cheese. So when we went to dinner at the Farmhouse and Tap and Grill in Burlington and saw Bayley Hazen was on the cheese board, we had to get it!

We liked it so much, that I made sure to buy some from the market on our way out of town to bring home. What stood out the most about this cheese was how dense and thick the texture is. It is really satisfying to bite into, and when you do, you get a funky, spicy and almost sweet flavor. I really haven't tasted anything else like it!

So, if you see this blue label peeking out at you at your local cheese counter, I would definitely recommend giving it a try! 

#35 - Von Trappe Farm - Mt. Alice

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Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take nice photos of this wedge of Mt. Alice from Von Trappe Farm. I was eager to get this little guy onto a platter that was to be our dinner, and made the best of the light above the stove! 

This soft, silky cheese was great on some toasted baguette with a bit of mango chutney. I liked how you could taste a bit of a grassy flavor, but it was still buttery and creamy. The color in these photos is a bit deceiving -- in reality the interior is not so yellow but more off-white, and the rind has a pretty orange and white dappling.

Definitely would get this one again. Would love to try a pairing it with a dry cider or rosé as these May days grow warmer!

#34 - Fairy Tale Farm - Barbegazi

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If you have been following week-to-week, you may have started to notice a pattern: This will be the third Vermont cheese I have posted in a row! I decided that my plan going forward will be to focus on one region for a few posts and then move on. So expect to see a few more cheeses from Vermont here before I move on to a new region! I'm thinking California, but I'll see how I feel when the time comes.

I had the good fortune to share this cocoa-dusted, alpine-style aged cheese with a few girlfriends at a recent game night. I was even more fortunate that one of our number is a lovely photographer and helped me take two of these three photos (thank you, Lin!) Can you tell which are which? YEP -- me too :)

This cheese --Barbegazi from Fairy Tale Farm -- was a great way to start our meal. On their website, Fairy Tale Farm explains that a barbegazi is "A Swiss mountain gnome, usually disguised as a rock." That is a perfect name for this cheese! I can imagine the whole wheel, dusted in cocoa, looking like a little rock that might secretly be a gnome :) This cheese is nutty and a bit sweet, and it crumbles slightly when you cut it. The cocoa is subtle, but it's a nice thing to get a whiff of while you take a bite and definitely adds some good flavor.

If you ever come across a wedge of this cheese, don't let the little gnome on the label scare you off! Great cheese lies inside.

#33 - Vermont Creamery - Bijou

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How cute are these?! For some reason these photos make them look huge, but they are actually quite small - 2oz each. And full disclosure, I stopped at a random brick post on my walk home to take the first photo! Figured it couldn't hurt to vary my backdrops a bit :)

Not only does the Vermont Creamery Bijou have a great name  -- this cheese was a real delight to eat. Had some at home after work with Kev with some leftover baguette. Super simple but very tasty and satisfying. The stiff inside of this cheese had that classic goat cheese tanginess, but for whatever reason it also had a very fresh aspect to it as well. Maybe it's just that spring air we've been getting in DC!

Rating: MMM (Maybe this will get old, but I sort of doubt it.)

#32 - Jasper Hill - Hartwell

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I'm back at it, folks! It's been a long time since I have posted, but I have been feeling inspired to start up again this spring.

This cheese was a great one to get back in the cheese-tasting game. "Mini brie-style" is a perfect description to lure in a cheese lover after a long hiatus. I also chose this Jasper Hill Hartwell because I have been reading a lot about Vermont cheeses recently, and I remember really liking the Jasper Hill Oma when I tried it a few years back!

I shared this wheel with Kevin and some friends (shout out to MB and Jamie!) during a recent pinochle card night. It was creamy and buttery, and I am pretty sure I could taste some "grassy" hints as well. It had an interesting flavor, but was also not so intense that I felt like I needed to pair it with anything else if I didn't want.

Served with some green apples, honey and a multi-grain loaf (not pictured), this cheese was a hit all around. And since it was a "mini" size, we still had room for the main course after!

Rating: MMM (But let's be honest, I pretty much find a reason to love most of the cheeses I eat!)

A fresh approach

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Up until this point, I have tried to write a "review" for each of the cheeses I tasted. It was fun at first, but by the time I reached #24, two things had happened. First, I basically was repeating the same handful of cheese-words over and over again (ex: Nutty! Creamy! Pungent! Gritty! Bloomy! Funky!) Second, and more importantly, I wasn't having fun posting anymore, so I stopped posting altogether.

THIS IS NO GOOD! A cheese blog ought to have CHEESE in it, right?

Here is how I will post in the future:

1) Make note of the name of the cheese.

2) Snap a photo of decent quality. No nitpicking.

3) Rate the cheese on the following scale:

Yuck = This cheese tastes bad!

Meh = This cheese is pretty good, but I don't feel the need to eat it again.

Yum = This cheese is really tasty and I would eat it again.

MMM = This cheese is mind-blowingly delicious and I can't stop saying "MMM!!"

#24 - Brie

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This brie rounded out the cheese board for our game night. Always a crowd-pleaser, I was glad to find a wedge this size at a good price! More cheese for everyone makes everyone happier, right?

Sometimes I feel like brie is so ubiquitous that it can be overlooked, so I wanted to take special care to do some background on the history of this cheese, and what we are actually getting when we buy brie in this country.

Origin

From Wikipedia:

"Brie is a historic region of France most famous for its dairy products, especially Brie cheese. It was once divided into three sections ruled by different feudal lords: the western Brie française, corresponding roughly to the modern department of Seine-et-Marne in the Île-de-France region; the eastern Brie champenoise, forming a portion of the modern department of Marne in the historic region of Champagne (part of modern-day Champagne-Ardenne); and the northern Brie pouilleuse, forming part of the modern department of Aisne in Picardy."

Varieties

Again, from Wikipedia:

"There are now many varieties of brie made all over the world, including plain brie, herbed varieties, double and triple brie and versions of brie made with other types of milk. Indeed, although brie is a French cheese, it is possible to obtain Somerset and Wisconsin. Despite the variety of bries, the French government officially certifies only two types of cheese to be sold under that name: Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun."

Drama 

This Slate article points out that the brie we can get here in the US is rarely the real thing, and that the result is that we get bland, factory made "brie" (that is, with a lowercase "b") which hardly resembles the original. Real Brie, capital "B",  isn't permitted to be imported into the US because it is made with raw, unpasteurized milk. Womp.

So, while it may not be the most interesting or authentic of cheeses, brie still holds a special place in my heart (and I will likely still call on it on those nights when a girl just needs an entire bottle of red wine and wheel of cheese to herself).

#23 - Swiss Emmenthaler

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We were having people over for a game night a few weeks ago, and of course we had to make things more complicated than necessary. MB and I managed to whip up a cheese board, tapenade, spinach dip (which turned out terribly, alas), and a bunch of "hot n' spiked" drinks like mulled wine, spiked hot cocoa and hot whisky!

This Swiss (along with the previous smoked blue) was part of our cheese platter. While this one was a little mild compared to the blue, it was a welcome addition, and went really well with the truffle honey that I mixed up to go with our cheeses and crackers.

Murray's cheese writes: 

"Wanna be a contender? This heavyweight from the heart of Switzerland sure is, tipping the scales at 200 pounds. Made from the raw milk of cows grazing in the Alps, this is the original 'Swiss' cheese (holes and all). Murray's selects wheels aged 12 months for balanced sweetness and sharpness and a long nutty finish. Its subtlety and meltability make it incredibly versatile - it's the perfect snack with fruit, the required base for fondue and an ideal sandwich topper. A knockout with Riesling."

#22 - Roth Moody Blue - Smoked Blue Cheese

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This cheese has lots of adjectives attached to it - Buttermilk, Smoked, Moody, Blue! The flavor was correspondingly interesting!

Because this cheese is smoked, it sort of tastes a bit bacon-y! Which is awesome, because blue cheese and bacon taste great together.

The Roth Cheese website says: "Made in small batches from fresh, local Wisconsin milk, our rich, creamy blue is delicately smoked over fruit wood to create subtle smoky undertones. Beautifully balanced, sultry, and seductive, Moody Blue® is excellent on a cheese plate and delicious for cooking."

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#21 - Pecorino Toscano

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Finally, Pecorino! I write this with excitement because this type of cheese was one of the first that made me realize there was a whole world of cheese to explore. When I first moved to DC, I met up with my faithful fellow cheese lover Sophie (lots of shout-outs this week Soph!) and we went to the wine bar Veritas in Dupont Circle on a freezing cold night for some wine and cheese. We drank a few classes of big reds and ordered a cheese plate that included a Pecorino, and I just loved it!

This Pecorino you see above did not fail to please. It has a similar flavor to Parmesan, but since it is made with sheep's milk, it has more of a gamey flavor that I really like. After having a few bites of it on its own, I grated some over my make-shift dinner of pasta and truffle oil! Delish :)

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This particular type is Pecorino Toscano, and Forever Cheese explains:

This Toscano is produced in the Val D’Orcia (Siena) under strict supervision of the Consorzio of Pecorino Toscano. It is aged about 6 months and has a firm texture and a rich, nutty flavor, with a lingering finish hinting of butterscotch. 

Also, according to Wikipedia, Pecorino Toscano was mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia! Old cheese, indeed!

#20 - Calcagno

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This is another one of the cheeses that Sophie and I shared! So delicious. It has a hard texture, with a sweet and almost fresh flavor, which was surprising to me since this is an aged cheese.

Calcagno is another Italian cheese, but this one is made with sheep's milk, and is produced on the island of Sardinia. According to Culture Cheese Magazine, it gets some of its flavor from the fact that the sheep are allowed to graze on whatever grasses and herbs they like out in the pasture! Their milk is affected by what they eat, and we get to reap the benefits :)

#19 - Castelrosso

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As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Sophie was very generous and shared this cheese with me!

I was delighted. This was the first time in a while that I tried a cheese and couldn't find another one to compare it to. Normally when I take a bite, my first response is "Oh! This kinda tastes like parmesan, but like, nuttier!" or some such. Not this time. This Castelrosso has a flavor all its own. It is rich, but also crumbly, and has a freshness that I was surprised by because its rind is so wonderfully moldy.

Sophie picked up this little beauty at Righteous Cheese at Union Market in DC, and I found a great post about this cheese on their website! I've included an excerpt below (see the full article here) - their blogger Jessie does a fantastic job of getting at the "personality" of Castelrosso:

"Castelrosso is one of those cheeses in our shop that often gets overlooked in favor of its bigger, more flavorful neighbors such as Gruyere and Challerhocker and Beemster Gouda. So let’s give Castelrosso the light it deserves, just for a minute. Castelrosso comes to our shop by way of the north-western Italian region of Piedmont. The flavors of Castelrosso are mild, milky, and mellow up front (with a hit of earthiness closer to the rind). However a residual tang – like a hit of lemongrass – and light dose of salt gradually develops and lingers in the mouth. To some, it is reminiscent of the tang so beloved of some English Cheddars. Meanwhile, the texture is delightfully crumbly, yet buttery at the same time.

Aged between 4-6 months, the cheese is more moist and mellow when closer to 4 months, and develops to be even more flaky, chalky, herbal, and flavorful when it reaches 6 months. Murray’s recalls an essence “with the flavor of browned, buttery lemon bar, fresh from the oven”. We couldn’t agree more!

While we love this cheese as a fresh, bright complement on a cheese board, it actually serves its best purpose to complement rich, earthy foods. The owners of the Frankie’s and Prime Meats in Brooklyn, NY (one of my favorite restaurants in the world) share their recipe for a shaved brussels sprouts salad with Castelrosso over at Epicurious. We think this is just plain, simple, culinary genius.

Or, as we often find ourselves suggesting at the shop, use Castelrosso as a substitute for Queso Fresco. Over pulled pork tacos or a thick black bean stew, this bright, crumbly cheese might finally get the applause it deserves."

Image from the RIghteous Cheese blog -  http://www.righteouscheese.com/castelrosso/

Image from the RIghteous Cheese blog -  http://www.righteouscheese.com/castelrosso/

#18 - Lou Bergier Pichin

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This cheese surprised me. For having a fairly bloomy rind, the cheese itself had a very mild flavor. The texture was pleasant - smooth but not creamy. I tasted this cheese with my friend Sophie (who was kind enough to share two of her cheeses with me - keep an eye out for them coming up at #19 and #20), and fortuitously she had some crackers and red wine. The wine was definitely a good match - the cheese's mild flavors were supported by the acidity of the wine.

I looked this cheese up in the Cowgirl Creamery's Library of Cheese, and found this description:

"Fattorie Fiandino traces its history to the year 1700, when Stefano Fiandino began herding sheep and making cheese in a small town near the Italian Alps. Early in the 20th century, Magno Fiandino bought a farmhouse in the Piedmont village of Villafalletto, where Fattorie Fiandino is still located today. The cheesemaking operation is now run by Magno's grandsons, Egidio and Mario.

Lou Bergier Pichin is a toma-style cheese made from raw cow's milk. Following ancient cheesemaking traditions, it is produced using vegetable rennet from alpine flowers (referred to as the kinara method) that grow wild on the mountainsides. The name Lou Bergier Pichin -- literally "man of the hut" -- pays tribute to Nonno Magno. The cheese's natural rind is dappled with green and gray mold and, depending on age, the paste has a smooth semi-soft or semi-firm texture with notes of acidity that balance its earthy undertones."