Each week we taste a sampling of cheeses in our Cambridge office and discuss their flavors, textures, and our general impressions of them. Yum!
Carr Valley’s Caso Bolo
Kate E. – The smell is very yeasty with a lot of different tones. There are flavors that work simultaneously, which makes sense due to the three different cheeses used in this recipe. I caught the goat first, but the cow smooths everything out. The flavor also depends where you are in the cheese. The rind area is drier and less complicated.
Amanda – Smelled like a grilled cheese sandwich. Tasted like it’d be amazing on a grilled cheese sandwich. Not rubbery. Had a familiar taste I couldn’t put my finger on. No tricks. This cheese is what you get. The smell, the taste, the texture, it all matches up.
Jesi – This cheese has a warm, bready aroma and a wonderful sweetness. It is buttery and slightly salty, with a wonderful sweetness. I don’t get a lot of goat flavor, but I can detect the typical rich nuttiness from the sheep’s milk.
Becca – Smells sweet, slightly floral, and a bit sheepy. The taste is slightly evocative of a mild cheddar, with a hint of smoke and a slight nuttiness.
Amy – Creamy, buttery, and slightly sheep flavored. The flavor builds as you eat more of it, making it hard to stop. It has a nice balance and is pleasantly rich.
Final thought by Becca:
There are many balanced flavors in one bite!
Carr Valley’s Benedictine
Jesi – With its sweet-and-sour aroma and its barnyardy, slightly floral taste, this one reminds me of a Morbier or an Alpine-style, but its soft, smooth texture puts it in a category of its own. It also has a fairly long finish– I was still tasting it a minute or two after I had stopped eating.
Kate E. – The smell is very farmy, but not in an offensive way. The flavor is sweet with some bite. I found this cheese to be incredibly addicting. One bite turned into five, and then I realized everyone had moved on to the next cheese already.
Amanda – A blend of three milks but I tasted mostly the sheep, which gave this cheese a funky, sweet and sour taste.
Becca – This cheese smelled very sheepy, and even had some barnyard hints. It tasted sheepy as well, slightly funky, yet sweet. It also had a nice bite to it.
Amy – This cheese is very forward, like a girl at a Sadie Hawkins dance. There is lots of sheep flavor and smell and the texture is quite soft and spreadable. It’s slightly sweet and melts away in your mouth leaving a slight tang.
Final thought by Kate E.:
One bite turned into five, and then I realized everyone else had moved on to the next cheese while I continued on this one.
Carr Valley’s Bessie’s Blend
Amanda – Who is Bessie? We can only surmise she’s a heifer who befriended a goat to create this cow-goat blend with a slight cheddar taste. The sudden burst of flavor was very surprising since the smell isn’t strong. My mind’s joy receptors lit up eating this cheese. It’s a comforting experience.
Jesi – I love it when a cheese smells like fresh-baked bread, and this one fits the bill. The yeasty aroma gives way to a savory, salty cheese with a little bit of crunch. While I really enjoyed this cheese, I had no idea it contained goat’s milk until I read the label.
Amy – Semi-soft and fairly spreadable, this cheese has a very mild smell, like freshly baked bread. The flavor is much stronger than I expected from the smell. It’s warm and slightly sweet with a hint of melon. There are tiny crystals (surprising in such a soft cheese) in the paste and flavors of browned butter and caramel give the flavor depth. There’s also a touch of the yeasty breadiness that you get from the smell. It’s very hard to taste the goat, but I don’t care. This cheese can have a place at my table any time.
Becca – Smells sweet like sheep’s milk, but it’s actually goat and cow! Slightly floral as well. The goat tang comes through more once you taste it. It’s sweet, creamy, luscious, and a bit sharp.
Amy:
This cheese can have a place at my table any time.
Amy Scheuerman
Amy Scheuerman—culture's former web director—spent eight years in North Carolina where she developed a love of barbecue and biscuits before moving up north to get a degree in nutrition. She now works at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
