It’s been a crazy week around here and trying to do our best to fit in a timely tasting was hit or miss – first with the cheese, then with the tasters.

Happily the stars aligned and it turned out to be an actual par-tay. With beer. Very, very interesting homebrew. And homegrown music... let’s just say we had fun with our cheese, thank you very much.

Somehow in my race to rip into the cheese I missed this tidbit of information – the tiny words Alpha Tolman on the label sealing the wrapping on the wedges. I’m assuming it’s a hat tip to another ruggedly unique Vermontian named Alpha Tolman.

While without context the name reminds me more of computers than artisan cheese, I’m not prepared to pass judgement yay or nay – I assume our man has a story that will bring it all home when the time is right for the big reveal.

After several delivery schedule changes we received the latest sample of the cheese tasting.
We had plans to be away for the weekend of the arrival of our latest sample so arranged for my lovely neighbor to receive the cheese box for me. She was happy to do so and brought it across to me upon my arrival back home. She had stored the cheese properly as I had asked and we had the first tasting the following day after letting it sit at room temperature for over an hour.

Appearance: The first thing we noticed was that the rind was not tacky as before and it appeared to be slightly thicker on both cheeses than the previous samples.
Both have the same coloration with -125 slightly firmer in texture.
The size seems to be appropriate for two people to sample and taste over several days to try and notice any suttle differences, but we really do not detect much difference between the two.

It's been a while since the last bits of my Jasper Hill sample were consumed. While I had good intentions to write about the final tasting, work and turkey hunting got in the way.

One of my coworkers, Nate, is a police officer with a passion for cheese. When I first learned that I was selected to test Jasper Hill's new cheese I promised Nate that I would bring some cheese to work for him to try. Police officers are never guaranteed a lunch break so finding time to get together at lunch to sample some cheese is special in itself. Having the opportunity to share a cheese in progress made our lunch break even better. Some of our previous lunch time cheese sampling have included Carr Valley's Mammoth Cheddar, Beer Kase and Limburger. When sampling Beer Kase and Limburger it helps to work third shift when there are less people around to offend.

First and Foremost thanks to Jasper Hill and Culture for selecting me to be a cheese tester.

My name is Joe and I live in Sun Prairie Wisconsin. By occupation I am a police sergeant and by hobby I am cheese maker. I have been married for 25 years and have two daughters. While I like cheese and live in the dairy state, I am a novice as a formal cheese tester. I was thrilled but a bit intimidated at being selected to test a new cheese. As a home cheese maker I have given birth to some cheese myself so I appreciate the desire to test one's cheese at various stages of development and the reaction of others while tasting the cheese. I hope that my feedback helps Jasper Hill with the successful delivery of their cheese.