Featured Cheese - March 2020

We love Farmhouse Cheddar for its, buttery, nutty, cheddary richness, without the slightest hint of bitterness or bite. The aroma of authentic farmhouse cheddar should be nutty or grassy, with a rich texture and complex flavors ranging from fruity to a woody oakiness. The color of the cheese should range from straw yellow to beige, and the texture should be open with a few cracks… rather than rubbery and dense, which indicates factory processing. You’ll know great cheddar if you can still taste the sweet nuttiness several minutes after you have finished your first mouthful.

Ewephoria is a Dutch gouda-style cheese made from pasteurized sheep’s milk instead of cow’s milk, as well as vegetable rennet cultures, and then aged 12 months. CheeseLand, a Seattle-based importer of Dutch cheeses, worked with a small farm to create Ewephoria in 2004. The sheep graze on salty, green, island pastures near a nature preserve in the northern Friesland region of The Netherlands bordering the sea, where they are treated like members of the family.

Kaltbach Le Crémeux is a fairly new cheese, arriving in the United States in early 2017. It is a washed-rind cheese made at the Emmi facility in Emmen, then cave aged in Kaltbach Cave, a veritable labyrinth of 22 million-year-old natural sandstone located near Lucerne in the Alpine Valley of Switzerland. It is named after the river that runs through the cave, which keeps the humidity at 96%, a crucial component in the development of the cheese’s texture.

This Spanish selection, first imported to the United States in 2004, has a unique story and inspiration: the Guirra breed of sheep. Valencian cheesemaker, Enrique, created this cheese to preserve this breed, which had become nearly extinct by 1990. With his cheesemaking, he has grown the herd to 500 sheep. The cheese’s preparation and presentation are distinctive: it is wrapped in cheesecloth, then the curds are drained by tying together the ends of the cloth, which causes the cheese to resemble a servilleta (napkin) when unwrapped.