A blog dedicated to urban cheesemaking, cheese tasting and appreciation and all things cheese and dairy related.
Smokey Blue, yet another from the American zen masters of Penicillium Roqueforti & Glaucum, Rogue Creamery. Rogue takes their Oregon Blue cheese and cold-smokes it for 16 hours over hazelnut shells. Many smoked cheeses end up tasting strongly of the smoking, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but what’s nice about this cheese is how the smokiness is mostly in the aroma, with only a delicate smokey flavor infusing the cheese, melding perfectly with the brightly sharp, grassy, caramely and sweet flavors of the cheese.
Purchased at Beechers.
Crater Lake
Crater Lake Blue, from Rogue Creamery. A salty, bold, crisp blue with a firm white milky paste; streaked with blue and yellow veining. Not as complex as their Rogue River Blue but a delicious blue in its own right.
One of the more visually striking cheeses I’ve seen recently, this is Sunset Bay, from Rivers Edge Chevre, cheesemakers from the Central Coast Range of Oregon. This bloomy-rinded chevre is coated in ash and cut through with a vivid red blaze of Spanish paprika. The paste is smooth and creamy; the flavor delicate and tangy, with a smokey, peppery bite thanks to the paprika. Perfect for an autumnal cheese plate in both appearance and taste.
