Cheese Profile: Alemar Cheese

by Joe Kastner

Here at the Cheese Shop of France 44, we sell cheeses made in all sorts of exciting locales- from the towering, picturesque mountains of Switzerland; to sweeping Welsh grasslands; to coastal Spanish islands. But some of my favorites come right from our backyard. The cheeses we sell that are made closest to home (barring our house-made mozzarella, of course) come to us from Alemar Cheese, and they’re made right here in Minneapolis!

Alemar has been around the cheese scene for a little while now, having opened in 2008 with their original operation based out of Mankato. The company was founded by Keith Adams, a California native, who named it after his two daughters, Alexandra and Mariel. The first cheese they started making then was the Bent River Camembert-style, an earthy, tangy, spreadable nod to the classic French standby. Just a couple years after opening, Bent River was already winning awards with the American Cheese Society, a feat that did not go unnoticed. 

We’re happy to sell Bent River at our shop, as well as a couple other offerings from the local makers. Blue Earth is their larger-format Brie-style cheese; another soft, spreadable one that tastes like a delicious mushroom butter. This is one that we cut-to-order at the counter, in case you just need a little snack for the road. Another option we carry is Good Thunder, a washed-rind soft cheese that’s actually treated with Surly Bender beer during its aging process, putting a fun MN twist on this traditional Reblochon-style. This pungent little square is for all you strong-cheese lovers, with a bigger kick than its siblings and a bready, sometimes fruity flavor. 

Keith and the team at Alemar have always attributed a lot of their success to the great milk that they get from local Minnesotan farms. They moved up from Mankato to the Food Building in Minneapolis in 2019, but still get their milk from the same trusted local farmers. Starting with delicious cow’s milk from trusted dairy partners is a great way to help ensure only the finest end product is being produced. Keith and his team, including Head Cheesemaker Charlotte Serino, are some of the more prolific Minnesota artisan cheesemakers in recent history, and we are super excited to try whatever they come up with next!

Stilton vs Stichelton

by Austin Coe Butler

“Stilton is a quintessentially British cheese,” wrote Ned Palmer, which makes it all the more hilarious that an arguably more traditional form of Stilton known as Stichelton is made by an American, Joe Schneider. Why is this? Schneider legally cannot call his Stichelton Stilton because it is made with raw milk.

In 1996 the Stilton Cheese Makers Association registered a protected designation of origin (PDO) for Stilton and in the process specified that it must be made with pasteurized milk. This took place in the context of a number of food scares involving listeria monocytogenes and Mad Cow Disease that shook the British public. Overnight, Stilton makers who still made Stilton with raw milk had to either install a pasteurizer or get out of the game. (A curious aside: this new PDO designated that Stilton could only be produced in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire, which means that Stilton can no longer be made in Stilton!) Since Schneider legally could not call his cheese Stilton, he settled on the old Anglo-Saxon name for the town—Stichelton. Schneider, I believe, would like to be welcomed back into the fold. When he’s not at the dairy, he can be found protesting in front of Parliament with a placard proclaiming, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not STILTON.”

What’s the difference between Stilton and Stichelton? We sell Colston-Bassett Dairy’s Stilton, which is the premier Stilton. It is made delicately by hand and matured several extra months before being pierced to allow the blue mold to bloom resulting in a well-balanced paste. (If you’ve ever had metallic, tinny, and bitter blue cheese, it’s because there’s too much blue mold in it.) Colston Bassett Dairy’s Stilton has brilliant indigo marbling and an ivory paste with notes of sweet cream, a tingle of spice, and sometimes a bubblegum or cotton candy sweetness hiding in there. Stichelton by its nature is wilder, almost feral at times. It’s bright buttermilk tang is accompanied with savory notes of malt, brewer’s yeast, baffling complex. Each wheel has some new flavor squirreled away in it. But for all its volatile and surprising flavors, it has the characteristic crumble and luxurious creaminess of Stilton.

Talking and writing about food can be exhausting, though, and there’s no better way to understand the difference that to taste it. Taste the difference side-by-side. On this dreary, drizzly weekend, go full English and have a few pints of Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale alongside these two fine English blues.

The Pairing: Wrangeback + The Chook

by Sophia Stern

We only have one Swedish cheese in our case, which makes it pretty easy when customers say “I had this one cheese… it was so good…it’s from Sweden”. Bingo, it’s Wrångebäck. This Alpine-esque cheese is a fan-favorite. It features an addictively creamy texture and a buttery, umami flavor similar to Gruyère and Comté. Wrångebäck is balanced with a bright, acidic quality, making for a smooth finish. A sparkling red is the perfect pairing to handle this this beefy, creamy, bold Swedish cheese. We’ve chosen The Chook Sparkling Shiraz from Australia as a semi-sweet and spicy balance to this rich, savory cheese. 

Wrångebäck isn’t just delicious, it’s Sweden’s oldest and most historic cheese. Officially, Wrångebäck dates to 1830, but some version likely goes back to 1225, when the farm it’s made on now was established by monks. Known today as Almnäs Bruk, the farm is located on the western coast of Lake Vättern, the second largest lake in Sweden. Production of Wrangeback thrived from the 1800’s to the mid 20th century. However, World War II halted the making of artisan cheese in Europe. A move towards industrialization reallocated the milk from Almnäs Bruk for commercial use. It wasn’t until 2008, when the fourth generation family owner decided to restart making Wrångebäck. With the help of 82-year old cheesemaker, Hans Stiller, the original recipe and methods of Wrångebäck were reinstated to Almnäs Bruk. 

Today, Almnäs Bruk is a thriving farm and historic estate with extraordinary respect towards the land. The diverse landscapes are maintained with attention to the species that call the farm home. Grasses are allowed to grow tall so the birds can nest and thrive. The cows eat feed made from the land they live and graze on. The cattle breeds are varied and unique, some rare and saved from extinction by the Almnäs Bruk team. They enjoy changing landscapes, from open pastures to ancient forests. The cheesemakers preserve their hard-won terroir by thermalizing the milk, instead of pasteurizing, saving the microorganisms that make Wrångebäck so unique and delicious. 

Enter The Chook, a sparkling Shiraz from south Australia. This New World wine is full-bodied, showing off the ripeness and intensity for which Australia's Shiraz’s are known. Notes of dark berries, tobacco, and cola bounce around this bottle. It’s standard to pair alpine-style cheeses with reds, but since Wrångebäck is so rich, so dense, so creamy, The Chook's bubbles offer a relief. The sweetness in the wine eases the beefier, savory qualities of cheese, making Wrångebäck extra addictive. This pairing screams to be featured around a BBQ. The wine is fun and cola-like, while the cheese is perfect alongside some grilled meats or ideal melted on a burger.

Cheese Profile: Lincolnshire Poacher

by Austin Coe Butler

Lincolnshire Poacher represents everything I love most about the contemporary cheese world. Grounded in tradition, but with an exciting, contemporary twist, Poacher blends two discrete and storied styles–Alpine, like Comté and Gruyère, and West Country Cheddar–into a surprising original. The name Lincolnshire Poacher refers to an English folk song called “The Lincolnshire Poacher,” which sings of the joys of poaching and cheekily evading the magistrates, gamekeepers, and wardens of the world. It is the unofficial anthem of Lincolnshire County, and there’s something renegade and revelrous in this cheese as well. It’s a cheddar but shirks the regulatory trappings of a West Country Cheddar to take its place as a contradictory “new traditional” cheese.

            Brothers Simon and Tim Jones are “cheese farmers,” in the parlance of Bronwen and Francis Percival, cheesemakers who keep and tend to the animals whose milk the cheese from, or, as Simon Jones says simply, “We grow the grass, milk the cows, and make the cheese.” Like so many great cheeses, it begins with the land. Made at Ulceby Grange Farm, in Alford, Lincolnshire, the farm had been in the family since 1917, but it wasn’t until the 90s that Simon Jones began to make cheese from the dairy cows his father cared for.  Geologically, Lincolnshire County has not been ripe for dairying. The loamy and clay soils make it difficult to grow pasture and graze cows. However, the Ulceby Grange Farm sits atop the Lincolnshire Wolds, a range of low, open hills or “wolds,” that is fortuitously composed of limestone and chalk, revealing a rich, red soil that is perfect for growing lush pasture and grazing dairy cows. Their herd of Holstein-Friesian and Ayrshire cows dine on spring grass and sweet clover, then, in the autumn and winter, a silage of spring beans, winter wheat, grass, and maize all grown on the farm, which allows them to produce rich, fatty, and sweet milk.

            This milk is then set into curd and cooked, cut, and stirred at a higher temperature and to a finer texture than a traditional English cheese—a distinctly Alpine technique. The curd is then cheddared, milled, and hand-salted before being pressed for 36 hours. The truckles of Poacher are then aged on wooden slats, and once a month they are turned by the Jones’s cheese turning robot, Florence. Like an Alpine, this cheese develops a natural rind that is ruddy and speckled like granite.

            All of these steps have a big impact on flavor. Cooking curd at a higher temperature and finer texture expels a lot of whey, resulting in a drier cheese that benefits from a long maturation. Truckles of Poacher are aged for a minimum of twelve months, and can go up to three years, which your standard regulation West Country Cheddar couldn’t stand. The result is a paste that is dense yet open, delightfully craggy–like a Cheddar you can see the individual curds, but like Comté of Gruyère those curds are dense, waxy, and creamy. The flavor is nutty, complex, and bursting with juicy tropical fruits like pineapple.

            When Poacher was first sold, it was so popular that the local shops had to ration it in 1/4 lb. slices to customers! Luckily, we’ve got enough Poacher to send you home with an honest chunk. Stop by the shop today to try Lincolnshire Poacher and you might be singing your own lyrics to the tune of “The Lincolnshire Poacher” about the joys of eating this rascally cheese.

The Pairing: Cabezuela + Mauny Cremant de Loire Brut

by Sophia Stern

It’s rare we get a pairing right on the first try. We tend to go back and forth between several bottles before finally settling on what hits just right. But now and then, we open our first pick, take a sip and a bite, and it’s perfect. Thus is the story of this week’s pairing. We’re featuring La Cabezuela Tradicional Semi Curado and Château de Mauny Crémant de Loire Brut, a delightful duo that helps each other shine. 

Like many stories we feature on this blog, Cabezuela begins with people in search of something meaningful and long-lasting. In 1991, couple Juan Luis Royulea and Yolanda Campos Gaspar decided to leave their communication and journalism careers for something different. They bought and effectively rescued Quesos La Cabezuela, an old creamery in the Guadarrama mountains outside of Madrid. To revamp the creamery, Juan and Yolanda turned their attention to the native breed of goats living in the area. The hearty, rugged Guadarrama goats were approaching extinction, but by exclusively using Guadarrama goat milk from local shepherds, the Cabezuela creamery revitalized the goat population, preserving the traditions and history of the land. 

Though the creamery makes a handful of cheeses that reflect the land and preserve the local history, we’re highlighting the Tradicional Semi Curado, which we just call “Cabezuela”.  This style of cheese, semi-firm and super creamy on the palate, dates back to at least 1750, when the Guadarrama goats were originally used for cheesemaking. Continuing the cheesemaking traditions into present day, the goats still graze on the mountainside pastures, eating thyme, acorns, heather and diverse grasses which impart a herbal and distinctly unique terroir into their milk. Guadarrama goats only produce 2 liters of their milk a day, about half as much as other goat breeds. The uniqueness of the land and the limited milk supply make Cabezuela a cheese we’re truly lucky to see in our case. 

Château de Mauny Crémant de Loire Brut is the ideal wine to handle this cheese. Hand-picked in the Loire Valley, this 80% Chenin Blanc, 20% Chardonnay sparkling beauty is bright and refreshing. The clean bubbles of the Crémant break through the richness of the Cabezuela and the floral, peachy notes balance the funkier qualities of the goat milk. On the flip side, the savory notes in the cheese bring out an intrigue in the Crémant which otherwise reads only crisp and floral. This pairing satisfies and shines. Most importantly, the cheese is a delicious reminder of the connections between quality food and tradition, and how they are revived by each other. Enjoy this pairing knowing the food you eat preserves history. Or with honey. Whatever you prefer. 

Cheese Profile: Mt Tam

by Austin Coe Butler

            Cowgirl Creamery’s Mt. Tam is one of the most iconic and awarded triple crèmes made in the United States. If you’ve had only one artisanal cheese made in the United States, this was probably it. And there’s good reason why. It’s flavor and texture are remarkable, which has led to numerous gold medals at the American Cheese Society and Good Food Awards. Mt. Tam is also the result of pioneering and radical practices.

            Cowgirl Creamery was founded by Sue Conley and Peg Smith who met as college students at the University of Tennessee in the 70s. They were heavily involved in the social and political movements of that time, and after a road-trip to the Bay Area they decided to relocate to Berkeley and work at establishments of California cuisine like the Obrero Hotel and Chez Panisse. (At this same time, Laura Chenel was producing chèvre for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.) Conley and Smith befriended dairy farmer Ellen Straus, and when they started producing cheese in an old hay barn in Point Reyes, they were dedicated to using local, organic, single source milk from the pasture grazed cows of the Straus Family Creamery.

            Just as American winemakers were moving to emphasize the terroir of the Sonoma or Napa Valley, Cowgirl Creamery was also emphasizing the locality, place, and terroir of West Marin County. Even after the company moved the majority of their production to Petaluma, they still create their washed-rind Red Hawk in Point Reyes owing to the dense fog, sea spray, and unique microbial and yeast communities in the air that give Red Hawk’s rind its signature color and flavor that varies with the seasons. They still use the same brine they’ve washed that cheese with for the past fifteen years.

            Mt. Tam was, and still is, revelatory for American consumers who had only ever had bland, bodega brie. Here was a brie-style cheese that was being made according to the highest standards in the United States and not being mass produced abroad for import to a country with stringent pasteurization laws. While many think of it as a brie, it’s a unique creation of its own. During the cheesemaking process, Mt. Tam’s curd is washed. This washing process, common to goudas, removes lactic acid and makes for sweeter cheese and gives Mt. Tam its sweet cream notes. After the curd has been formed into molds and the young cheeses have drained overnight, they are brined in a salt-water and whey solution. Its stout shape and added height gives the cheese a fudgy core that most flat, disc-shaped brie-style cheeses never achieve. You’ll find all the classic bloomy-rind, brie flavors like button mushrooms and a rich, buttery cream-line, but with added complexity. For that reason, it’s incomparably accessible and versatile.

            There’s no wrong way to serve this cheese–with a dollop of bright apricot jam, alongside fresh fruit, cured meats, or olives. Slice the top off, broil it, and drizzle it with spicy chili crisp. Any way you choose to enjoy it, it deserves its place on your Easter cheese board as a true American original.

Cheesemaker Profile: Landmark Creamery

by Austin Coe Butler

Sheep’s milk is uncommon. To start, sheep are notoriously stubborn. They only produce milk for three to four months after lambing in the winter or spring. It isn’t possible to milk them most of the year like goats or year round like cows. They also produce a small amount of milk. Proportional to their size, sheep produce less milk than cows, water buffalo, and even goats. But what sheep’s milk lacks in volume it makes up for in fat. The “fat globules” (that’s a technical term) are larger than the fat globules of cow's or goat’s milk, which give sheep cheeses their buttery characteristics. As these fatty acids break down, they produce the characteristic tangy, spicy notes of Roquefort, Pecorino, and Manchego. There’s another reason why sheep’s milk cheeses are uncommon in the US–sheep are uncommon!

Notice that those last three cheeses (Roquefort, Pecorino, and Manchego) are all European. In the US, we don’t have the tradition of sheep’s milk or meat. I mentioned briefly in my piece on Vermont Shepherd’s Verano, the first artisanal sheep cheese in the US, that sheep’s milk cheeses just aren’t a thing in the US. And that has to do with something that goes to heart of cheesemaking: genetics.

American sheep have been bred for one purpose: fiber. Wool was placed on the Pentagon’s list of strategic materials in 1954 because military uniforms were made from wool. As a result, massive government subsidies compelled shepherds to breed for wool, and even though the military declassified wool as a strategic material in the 60s, many states still subsidize the production of wool. Additionally, American sheep genetics were limited because of outbreaks of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease). In our intra-Covid world, we are anxiously attuned to the microscopic, the microbial, but prior to this, many of us were enjoying the gentle comforts of a “post-Pasteurian world." The BSE outbreaks of the 80s and 90s shook animal agriculture. Especially in the UK, hundreds of people fell violently ill from Mad Cow Disease and 178 died, leading to the immediate restrictions on animal products like meat, dairy, and genetic material. British beef was banned in some countries as late as 2019.

Enter the Annas of Landmark Creamery.

Anna Landmark and Anna Thomas Bates met at a potluck over a decade ago and before they knew it they were conspiring a creamery under the influence of some Old Fashions. Landmark is the cheesemaker while Bates manages sales, marketing, and everything in between. Landmark Creamery’s milk comes from a herd of sheep that are a mixed breed of Lacaune and East Friesian sheep crossed with Assaf, an Israeli hybrid. Only a few years ago new Lacaune genetics (the sheep used to make Roquefort) we imported into the US. The arrival of new sheep genetics to the US market really is a game changer, and we are in the midst of an exciting and dynamic period of sheep’s milk cheesemaking.

Running a small creamery is hazardous, to say the least. ATB has joked that starting a small creamery has been like the pictures of Obama before and after his presidency, referring to the grey hairs they’ve gained along the way. In addition to all the investment and fundraising that go into starting a new business and the time and effort that go into making cheeses that almost all take six months to age, there was an incident when their cold storage facility threw away their cheese, valued at over $20,000! Such things can shutter a small company, but the cheese community rallied behind them. Landmark Creamery is the product of family, friendships, and community support.

Landmark Creamy now has a provisions shop in Belleville, WI, where you can shop all their delightful cheeses. They make a number of sheep's milk cheeses, and this week we’re thrilled to carry three: Anabasque, Rebel Miel, and their sheep’s milk Taleggio (so new it doesn’t have a name yet). Anabasque is an homage to the cheeses of the Basque Country, like Ossau-Iraty. It has a walnut nuttiness to it and a bright, espellete fruitiness. The Taleggio we have now is remarkably gooey and luxurious. You can taste and feel the extra fat sheep’s milk has (remember those large “fat globules” I mentioned?). Rebel Miel is washed in a Paint It Black beer that gives the rind a flinty, chocolaty flavor and leaves the paste spring, bright, and complex.

Come see how this uncommon milk makes beautiful cheese!

The Pairing: Bayley Hazen Blue

by Sophia Stern

Bayley Hazen Blue is definitely a monger favorite. Not only is it sweet, earthy and creamy, but Bayley seems to always fit right in. If someone’s looking for a delicious blue to snack on, Bayley Hazen hits the spot. If someone wants a blue for salad, steak, or dessert, Bayley is the way to go. If someone needs a blue they’ll love, but their blue-adverse relatives will still enjoy, Bayley swoops in to save the day. So this week, we’re leaning in to the versatility of Bayley Hazen Blue and pairing with three different beverages. For a light and fruity option, we picked BrightCider by 2 Towns CiderHouse. For a non-traditional pairing, we chose the Mountain Standard IPA from Odell Brewing. For a classic, decadent experience, we pinned Warre’s Otima 10-year Tawny Port. 

Bayley Hazen is an award-winning cheese from Jasper Hill farms, who’ve been rocking the domestic cheese game for the past two decades. In 1999, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler, along with their wives, Victoria and Angie, bought a run down dairy farm that hadn’t seen cows for over forty years. The Kehler family, who’d spent summers in Greensboro, wanted to create sustainable, fulfilling work in a place special to them. Today, Jasper Hill is one of the biggest names in domestic cheese and a star on the global stage, winning international cheese awards since 2012. Though Jasper Hill is famous for many cheeses, Bayley Hazen stands out. Modeled on traditional British blues, Bayley is fudge-like, with nutty notes and aromas of grass. There is no peppery kick, making Bayley flavorful, but mellow and easy to enjoy.

If you’re in the mood for a bright, refreshing pairing, try the appropriately named BrightCider from 2 Towns out in Oregon. Only using apples from the Pacific Northwest, this semi-dry, cider is fruit forward and easy-going. On the other end, if you want a funkier, earthy option, go with the Colorado's Mountain Standard IPA from Odell Brewing Company. Mountain Standard is a middle ground between juicy, sweet East Coast IPAs and piney, citrus forward West Coast IPAs. Like Jasper Hill, Odell is a standout domestic producer. They have pioneered much of the craft beer renaissance we still see today. Finally, if you’re looking for luxury, go with a classic and pair Bayley with Warre’s Otima 10-year port. From the Douro Valley, the highest quality wines are selected to age in seasoned oak casks until perfect. The port’s burnt sugar notes meld with the Bayley’s nutty, sweetness, while the acidity in the tawny port cuts through the cheese’s rich paste. Indulge in the multitudes of blue cheese and pick up all three pairings, or go with the one that speaks to you. No matter what, Bayley Hazen Blue will always be there for you.     

Kassboerderij’T Groendal

by Austin Coe Butler

When NASA astronaut and committed turophile Shannon Walker learned she would be on the International Space Station (ISS) for 210 days, she knew she would need some cheese for the journey. She asked her neighborhood cheese shop Houston Dairymaids to send her some cheese and a few weeks later a gouda, OG Kristal (OGK), made by the Belgium cheesemaker Kaasboerderij’T Groendal (Kahss–BOOR-deh-LAY TRUN-dahl) and aged by Van Tricht, arrived on board the ISS. It was an immediate hit and the crew devoured it. Walker requested another shipment of OGK, but something was happening on the earth’s surface….

            All the other earthlings loved it, too! You probably fell for its crunchy-crystally texture, sweet, creamy paste, and brilliant Dutch red rind. The OG in OG Kristal stands for “Old Groendal” (sadly, not “original gangster”), and old it is: it has an aging minimum of 18 months, which is really long for most cheese! It is remarkably creamy and moist for a cheese this mature. Compare OGK with L’Amuse 2-year Gouda, Brabander Reserve (12-18 months), or Coolea Irish Gouda (12 months), and you will find much drier cheeses with a pleasant almond flour or macadamia nut mealiness bursting with tyrosine crystals. The astronauts couldn’t get any more OGK because there wasn’t any on earth. It had sold out, and we would all have to wait months until we could eat it again.

            Aging cheese is a perennial problem for cheesemakers. Most of the cheeses you love that are firm and flavorful like Comté, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and truckles of farmhouse Cheddar have to sit on a shelf somewhere and take up a lot of space while they mature and develop flavor. That whole time they’re not earning any money, and the venture of aging cheese has always been a precarious investment of labor, time, and hope.

            Goudas are large wheels of cheese, typically weighing in between fifteen and twenty-five pounds and need a lot of time to age. One of the first perils of aging large cheeses is that if enough moisture isn’t driven out of them, they rot from the inside and “heave” or explode. I’ve written about this previously with Cheddars, and there’s a reason why “hoven” cheeses were a common problem in England and Holland. Both share a maritime climate with wet summers. But the two cultures, while presented with the same problem, devised different solutions that resulted in distinct styles and flavors.

Whereas the English settled on letting milk and cheese acidify, like during the Cheddaring process, the Dutch decided to “wash” their curds. Once the milk has been coagulated with rennet into curd, and the curd cut, Dutch cheesemakers poured off the whey and added fresh, hot water to the vat. “Washing” the curd not only scalds the curd, driving out more whey, and thus, moisture, but in washing away the whey, they removed lactose, which lactic bacteria convert into lactic acid, and created a milder, sweeter curd before blocks of curd are then placed into wooden molds and pressed. This curd washing not only gave goudas their signature complex sweet flavors ranging from coconut milk and marzipan to butterscotch and aged soy sauce, but allowed them to travel across the world when the Dutch were the leading European Empire. And it turns out it doesn’t just travel well on the seas, but in the zero-gravity of space, too!

            While the affineurs at Van Tricht were waiting for the next batch of OGK to ripen, Johan Deweer and his team at Kaasboerderij’T Groendal wondered how they could make a similar cheese in less time. The answer was in the culture cocktail they added to the milk. The new cheese reached the same sweet, crunchy profile as OGK in nine months, literally half the time OGK needs to mature. OGK and the Farmdal cheeses use the same mix of Holstein and Brown Swiss cow’s milk and make, their only difference is the cultures added to them and their aging time. While we waited for OGK, we all got to enjoy Old Farmdal! And so did the astronauts. Old Farmdal was sent to the ISS where it was received with just as much delight as OGK and now bears one of the coolest cheese labels and designations, “SPACE CHEESE.”

            In celebration of OG Kristal and Old Farmdal, and all things Kaasboerderij’T Groendal, we are promoting their cheeses we carry, which includes the younger version of Old Farmdal aptly named Young Farmdal, and a fantastic trappist cheese named Drunk Monk. Drunk Monk has been washed in a Belgian Blond Ale with Cascade hops called Rex as the wheels ripen. It tastes uncannily like a fresh Parker House yeasted dinner roll, with the same yeasty flavors and mild sweetness while also having and delightfully springy bounce like Babybel.

            Next time you go into space (or just on a picnic or hike), ask your cheese monger to send you with some cheese that travels well.

Softies Highlight

This week, instead of a longer form write-up focusing on a specific cheese or certain producer and in the spirit of our 20% off all softies promotion, I thought it would be fun to do something different. What better way to inspire excitement than to hear from someone who is passionate and excited? Here is a collection of voices from a few of our mongers about what their favorite softies are. Who knows, they might become your new favorite, too.

~ACB

Carol Ann, Alta Langa Robiola Bosina and Alta Langa Cossanella

It's all about the texture with these two. Both of these Italian beauts have a delicate rind with an unctuous, silky texture. Cossanella stands out with its Annatto washed rind. Robiola Bosina is both cow and sheep's milk, giving it a slight depth of flavor. Enjoy with Lambrusco (Piazza Grande $14.99) or a Saison (Saison Dupont $12.49).

Sophia Stern, Capriole Sofia

Capriole's Sofia has always been one of my favorite cheeses. It helps that the cheese and I share a name (sort of), but Sofia is also perfectly tangy and bright and visually stunning with its unique shape, fluffy interior, and clean ash lines running through the center. Definitely enjoy this cheese with a darker rose or sparkling white and try it with the American Spoon Sour Cherry Preserves from the shop! If you want to have a real adventure, pick up a bag of dill pickle potato chips and eat them with little pieces of Sofia on it. I promise it's amazing.

Joe Kastner, Bergamino di Bufala

Bergamino di Bufala is always one of my go-to softies. Think buffalo mozzarella with a rind on it. This lusciously buoyant little pillow of water-buffalo cheese from Northern Italy will be giving your taste buds sweet dreams. Try it on toasted baguette or with a spicy pepper jelly!

Maura Rice, Nettle Meadow Kunik

I think of Kunik as the Mt. Tam of the East Coast; it’s a tried-and-true American classic, having been made for over two decades at the Warrensburg creamery. It’s advertised as a triple cream, and it’s certainly buttery and deliciously rich, but Kunik is actually mostly goat’s milk, which gives it a lovely tang. The best part, for me, is that Nettle Meadow is a longtime sanctuary farm for retired and unwanted animals, so in addition to acquiring some tasty cheese you’re also supporting animal welfare.

Austin Coe Butler, Fromagerie Germain Langres

I love everything about this cheese from its brainy, vermiculate appearance, barnyardy aroma, gooey texture, and chicken-stock savoriness, to its humble origins as a farmhouse cheese and dazzling presentation when served with champagne or a shot of brandy burning blue in the fontaine or depression that caps this cheese. While it is a stinker, it’s easy to love. Langres is superb with a bottle of bubbly and smeared onto plain potato chips for a delightfully gauche and positively post-modern celebration of cheese.