If you are lucky enough to live near a well-stocked cheese counter, you may have experienced that sense of excitement when you’re looking upon stacks and wheels of familiar and unfamiliar cheeses—that feeling of adventure and exploration that will ultimately lead to a little (or big) wedge to call your own.
But first, the big unknown: How do you know which one you’ll like?
The obvious answer is to taste them, and we do, definitely, recommend doing this whenever you can. But let’s be real&mdashthere’s no way you can taste every cheese in the counter on your one visit (or likely even in multiple visits). On top of that, if you’re a curious eater, you might find yourself learning where the cheese comes from, what milk its made of, and how long its aged. How can you remember all that info?! And this doesn’t even begin to tackle the issue of the cheeses that aren’t even in your local counter!
Enter: Let’s Talk About Cheese, a cheese-tasting and education event like no other in our home base of Boston, Massachusetts.
Photo Credit: Alex Teng, The Boston Globe
On October 17, in partnership with The Boston Globe and the generous contributions of our sponsors, culture: the word on cheese turned the atrium of The Globe into the city’s largest cheese counter and cheese education center.
Photo Credit: Alex Teng, The Boston Globe
At last count we saw nearly 200 (yes, 200!) types of cheeses cut and stacked at stations labeled with tasting notes and producer information. Each station represented a different country (or for the US, regions of the country) and held the best of the best from those areas.
Within a few feet you could find beautiful Époisses from France, Gorgonzola Piccante from Italy, rich goudas from The Netherlands, manchego from Spain, Gruyère from Switzerland, cheddar from the UK, rustic blue cheese from the Western US, Italian-style grating cheese from the Central US, and creamy, aged goat cheese from the Eastern US—and all the accompaniments you can think of.
It was quite a day:
Cheeses of France
Photo Credit: Alex Teng, The Boston Globe
Cheeses of Italy
Cheeses of Spain and Portugal
Photo Credit: Alex Teng, The Boston Globe
Cheeses of The Netherlands
Cheeses of Switzerland
Cheeses of the UK & Commonwealth
A lovely volunteer and Cheeses of the Western US
Photo Credit: Alex Teng, The Boston Globe
Cheeses of Central US
Cheese of Eastern US
Beer Pairing Class
Photo Credit: Alex Teng, The Boston Globe
Click here for the full list of cheeses and tasting notes, sorted by country.
Feature Photo Credit: Alex Teng, The Boston Globe
culture: the word on cheese
Culture is America's first and best magazine devoted to the love of cheese. Explore our website for stunning photos, cheesemaker profiles, recipes, wine, beer, and a community of readers always willing to help and chat.
