May 10, 2012

The excitement of being chosen to participate as official Jasper Hill tasters was then surpassed by the thrill accompanying the prompt arrival of the first box. We didn't really know what to expect and were very happy to see how much cheese was in the first shipment. We hope this generous trend continues in the future!  We had plenty to do a thorough tasting on the day of arrival, with enough left over to do a second round of tasting in grilled cheese sandwiches a few days later.

We hadn't anticipated getting three different batches to compare. They weren't drastically different from each other and that's a good way to do it because having more than one variety to taste forces you to think about how you want to describe the subtle differences. When we've held tastings for friends in the past we would offer a wide range of cheeses. The closest we've come to participating in such a close comparison was a special tasting we attended at Murray's Cheese hosted by Mike Gingrich (of Uplands Cheese) who brought 3 different ages of his Pleasant Ridge Reserve for us to compare with a Beaufort (the archetype of Pleasant Ridge).

Aside from the third sample having a slightly darker rind, we thought all three were very similar in appearance and texture: a light pinkish orange rind, not deeply textured, very slightly cloth-looking, somewhat pebbly looking, very thin. The paste was a pale yellow color, pretty uniform, with very few "eyes" (holes). Apparently the term for having very few eyes or holes is "blind"--which made us laugh. At the rind edge there was a slight band of translucent paste of a slightly darker color.  

The texture of all three was semi-firm, smooth on the tongue. It felt good on the teeth (a "nice bite"). It was slightly dry but not crumbly at all. We're not huge washed-rind fans, so we didn't eat any of the actual rinds.

Of the three, the first was definitely the saltiest, and while others may like it that way, we felt it was too salty now and think after more aging it would be way too salty--at least for us. We liked the second and third. In many ways they were very similar, though we liked the third the best as it seemed the most complex: "On the road to stinky" with the highest umami and the richest taste of the three. Sweet, perhaps buttery, right amount of salt, a faint hint of sharpness but overall mild. We are looking forward to tasting these again in a few months to see how aging helps (or doesn't) make them more complex. Young cheeses are nice and have their place, but we prefer them a bit stronger.

In addition to sampling them plain with water, we also tried them with the following:
(1) Regatta Bermuda Stone Ginger Beer - way too strong to drink with these cheeses (at this maturity), but excellent palate cleanser.
(2) Bartlett pear - ok, but nothing special as an accompaniment.
(3) Suzie's Organic Tomato & Oregano saltines - ok for palate cleanser, not thrilled with it with these cheeses.
(4) Rosemary Olive Oil bread from LaBrea Bakery - liked all three paired with this bread the best!

May 16, 2012

For the second round of tasting we left the pieces out while making the grilled cheese sandwiches, so by the time we were eating the cheese with the grapes, honey, and apple juice it had been out for more than an hour. The first and second were markedly more rubbery in texture compared to the first tasting. The third one was not, still a more creamy consistency like the first time.

In addition to sampling them plain with water, we also tried them with the following:
(1) Red/Purple Grapes - went well with all three cheeses.
(2) Red Jacket Fuji Apple Juice - ok, but nothing special as an accompaniment.
(3) Bee Raw Colorado Sweet Yellow Clover honey - went best with the saltiest cheese (111215).
(4) Rosemary Olive Oil bread from LaBrea Bakery - liked all three paired with this bread the best!

Grilled Cheese sandwiches:

We started with this grilled cheese recipe, but left out the sauerkraut and spinach, and traded pecans for walnuts. We used the Rosemary Olive Oil bread mentioned above.  All three cheeses made excellent sandwiches, but honestly we couldn't really tell any difference between them.

--Gerard & David from NYC

P.S. We wanted to mention that Gerard is lactose-intolerant, but he swears by a product called DairyCare. He found it to be both cheaper and more effective for him than Lactaid was. Gerard has been taking a couple DairyCare capsules every morning for over 10 years and never suffers ill effects from eating any amount (within reason ;-) of cheese, milk, ice cream, etc.