If you are looking for an exceptional American cheese for your Thanksgiving festivities, or for a host gift, you won’t be disappointed by this beauty. It’s a recent release with a long origin story and absolutely worth the wait. A collaboration between the Maryland creamery that produced it and the New York affinage team that nurtured it from infancy to its prime, this aromatic goat cheese seduced me at the first sniff. I’m hoping that affinage—expert cheese aging—will become more of a thing in this country, as it is in Europe, and that success stories like this one will pave the way.
Read moreRobiola Rave
Wow. Just wow. I am so impressed with this cheese. I tasted it when it first debuted about five years ago, but it is off-the-charts delicious now. Did I change or did the cheese? “It’s the same recipe,” says the cheesemaker, “but we have some really awesome milk now.” Hugely aromatic, supple and beautiful to boot. Put this on your summer cheese boards and wait for the raves.
Read moreAlready a Winner
The number of American creameries making raw-milk cheese from their own grass-fed animals is minuscule and not likely to climb. It’s a risky business model given the unpredictability of the FDA and its rule-making around raw-milk cheese. Plus, there aren’t that many places in the U.S. where livestock can be outside, eating grass, all year. So you have to applaud those who still take this traditional path and (the “and” is important) consistently produce distinctive, well-made cheeses. In that light, it’s time for a shout-out to Georgia’s Sweet Grass Dairy and its newest creation, Griffin, a recent Good Food Award winner.
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