Flavored cheese tasting, clockwise from high noon: Point Reyes Truffletoma, Provencetoma and Tomarishi; Beehive Barely Buzzed and Red Butte Hatch Chili; Deer Creek Moon Rabbit and Rattlesnake.
Flavored cheese, according to industry research, now accounts for 20% of all cheese sales. I attended a tasting session with 3 veteran cheesemakers at the Winter 2024 Fancy Food Show, each of whom said “no way!” when initially approached about using anything other than dairy products and enzymes and cultures but eventually came around in response to customer demand.
Point Reyes COO Lynn Giacomini Stray presented three cheeses based on Toma, their flagship cheddar. Tomatruffle responds to today’s trend for truffles in everything; she said the biggest challenge was finding the right balance so the truffles could be tasted easily but were not overwhelming. Tomaprovence uses an herb mixture similar to herbes de provence. Tomarashi is a play on togarashi, the Japanese seasoning mix, and includes chili flakes, nigella, chili powder, orange peel, ginger powder and nori. The effect of the flavor mix-ins was subtle; they are interesting and approachable vs whacking you in the palate.
Oliver Ford is director of sales at Beehive in Utah, where his father is the chief cheese maker. He brought us two cheeses based on Promontory, their signature cheddar. Barely Buzzed is infused with lavender and rubbed with espresso which seems like an odd combination and I couldn’t really taste the lavender. Red Butte Hatch Chili is infused with bits of fresh Hatch chili and rubbed with a red chili powder. This had just a gentle kick and was my favorite of the tasting.
Chris Gentile, Lynn Stray and Oliver Ford with moderator Kyra James.
Chris Gentine is a cheese grader (which is different from cheese grater, he emphasized) who makes his own cheese at Deer Creek Cheese as sort of a side hobby. A lot of his flavored cheese experimentation is based on getting together with other cheesemakers over beer. Moon Rabbit is bathed in Chartreuse liqueur (which he said was hard to find during the pandemic, when it got a reputation as something of a serum) providing “hints of cloves, citrus, rosemary, and thyme”. Rattlesnake was by far the spiciest cheese of the day (we were warned to save it for last) and came from a desire to make cheese with tequila (after much enjoyable experimentation he settled on Cuervo Gold) and habanero peppers. It’s the cheese that bites you back.
All these cheeses are available by mail order at the website links above, and you may also find them at your local cheesemonger. Another great source of flavored cheeses is our friend Trader Joe. Check out the white Stilton with apricots (cranberries are substituted during the holidays) and Cotswold, a semi-sharp English cheddar with onions and chives mixed in. These are approachable price-wise as well as palate-wise and I’m eating some right now, to get me in the mood for writing about flavored cheese.
I thought you were retired? I suppose as a Secret Master you have lifetime privileges and commitments. Thanks for a glimpse inside!
Retired? I think I probably said “tired”. That’s why I didn’t go to the New York show this past summer, but was on my west and this winter show in Vegas nicely fit my schedule. Got a couple more posts coming up with reports.