We’ve had a number of new cheeses take up residence in our case recently, which is always exciting! Here’s a quick rundown of just a few of them I am especially enamored with today:

Elsa Mae – This cheese came in while I was on vacation, and my first day back, I kept seeing piece after piece run out the door with our customers. I was pumped to try it, but it was a busy day, so I didn’t get to it until the end of the day. YES! Time to taste this cow’s milk Pennsylvanian softie that everyone was so into today! But no, my fellow cheesemongers were very thorough, blasting through both wheels in that one Sunday. Tragedy! Luckily, we received more so days later I did FINALLY got to try it, and it was certainly worth the wait. It looks like a real stinker with a sticky yellow washed rind, but it is actually mellow. Luscious, creamy, a touch farmy, a touch fruity, irresistible.

Finger Lakes Gold Reserve – From one of the oldest goat diaries in the USA, Finger Lakes Gold Reserve is from, you guessed it, the Finger Lakes. So many good things are coming out of that part of New York these days! Wine, cheese, beer, and other things I’m sure but they don’t occupy as much of my brain… Anyway, this cheese, oh this cheese. First, you’re hit with a lemon zest tang and salt, then it mellows out into caramel sauce and brown butter flavors. Ugh I wasn’t going to take the effort to unwrap it, taste it, rewrap it and wash the cheese plane but I can’t talk about it without tasting it or I might die. There, I tasted it and, as always, it was delightful.

Sennerkäse with Fenugreek – I don’t often highlight cheese with stuff in it, but the fenugreek really highlights the flavor of the cheese rather than masks it. At the base of the Bavarian Alps, cheesemaker Arturo Chiriboga (maybe you know his blue cheese?) uses milk from cows that graze on the surrounding mountain pastures. He adds fenugreek for flavor but also as homage to the blue fenugreek used for decorations in southern Germany. The maple syrup flavor of the fenugreek sets off the herbal, milky flavor of the cheese. If you are a fan of Urchruter or the late Sternschnuppe (RIP), then this one is definitely for you. It also makes an excellent breakfast cheese melted over French toast or grated into scrambled eggs with sausage on the side.

And a rapid fire round because there’s too many good cheeses to choose just three: Pinnacle (semi-firm, MA, cow), Truffle Raclette (semi-firm, Switzerland, cow), Norwich Farm Ricotta (oh so fluffy, VT, cow), Alma de Cerrón Aged (firm, Spain, goat), Sunset Hill (soft, MA, cow), Simply Sheep (soft, VT, sheep of course), Bünder Berkäse Mustair (firm and flakey, Switzerland, cow)

For the love of cheese and our new case residents,

Kiri

New to our Cheese Case!