Cheese Madness: A Tale of Two States 🧀
A cheese tasting tournament starting with the Vermont and Oregon bracket.
Hello friends, fellow travelers, and cheese aficionados!
A big shout-out and thank you to my friend David for sending me a box of Vermont’s finest cheeses from Chef’s Market. After reading my article, A Cheese Lover’s Travelogue, David thoughtfully shared these delicious treats.
I first crossed paths with David when he stayed at our California home, joining dozens of volunteers from around the country to get out the vote during My Journey with Bernie.
Setting the Stage: Cheese Tasting Tournament
Inspired by David’s gift, I decided to turn our cheese appreciation into a fun and flavorful competition. The rules were simple: gather family and friends, select some local Oregon cheeses, and pit them against Vermont’s offerings. Our cheese court was ready, and the games were about to begin!
My first step was to select some local cheese from Oregon to begin the first round of tasting. It's time to go shopping at Zupan’s our local grocery store. I researched and asked the cheese guy for advice to pick some good cheese and tips to taste with the Vermont offering.
Preparation Tips: The Art of Cheese Tasting
Before we delve into the cheesy showdown, let’s talk preparation. Here’s what I learned:
About an hour before your tasting, take the cheese out of the fridge and let it relax. Allow it to warm up to room temperature. This enhances its flavors and aromas.
Before touching the cheese, observe its color, size, and other traits. Is it crumbly, elastic, soft, pliant, or firm?
Bring the cheese close to your nose and take a quick sniff. Revel in the intensity of its aroma.
Finally, place a bite-sized piece on your tongue. Identify the flavors—from simple to complex.
Round One: Vermont vs. Oregon 🧀🏀
Just like the excitement of the March Madness basketball tournament, I created a fun competition between Vermont—the land of rolling hills and dairy farms and Oregon—known for forests, rivers, and artisanal food scene.
Each cheese brings to the court a selection of its finest players, or in our case, cheeses.
Our first round of tasting with family was a slam dunk! It was a buzzer-beater moment, tasting each cheese, savoring the flavors, and scoring them based on taste and texture. Fortunately, several guests had experience with cheese tasting including a cheese journalist!
Cheddars
Facerock Creamery (Oregon): Award-winning creamery located on the beautiful Southern Oregon Coast. They specialize in Cheddar and take a classic artisan approach to cheese making. Their cheddar is known for its bold and intense flavor. Our tasting notes: tangy, cow, creamy with grainy texture, good mold, sweet, then bitter, nutty, soft, melty, sweet like strawberry, and crunchy.
Tillamook English Cheddar (Oregon): English-Style Sweet Cheddar is slightly sweet with a smooth, velvety finish. It’s creamy, with sweet, buttery notes and a slightly grassy finish. This cheddar has a velvety texture with a slight crumble and a rich fresh-churned cheddar aroma. It was the winner of a 2020 World Championship Cheese Contest award. Our verdict: firm, tough, aged, dry, earthy, semi-hard, and good flavor.
Farmer Fred’s (Vermont): A raw milk cheddar aged for 60 days. It’s buttery and meltable, with notes of fresh pasture and sweet cream. It’s named after a local legend, Farmer Fred, who is a resident farm educator with over 55 years of experience. Our impressions: creamy, plain, not smokey, basic, uninteresting, Taylor Swift of cheese, plain, little salty, soft, smooth
Hunter Extra Sharp Aged Cheddar (Vermont): The sharpest cheese from Plymouth Artisan Cheese. It’s a raw cow milk cheddar aged for 2+ years. As the lactose content decreases during the two-year aging process, crystallization occurs, which makes its consistency more brittle to the bite. The result is a robust, mature, ivory-hued, no-nonsense sharp Vermont cheddar. We thought it was nutty, plain, not smokey, probably melts nice, earthy finish, and light.
Cabot Classic Cheddar (Vermont): Known for its bold and intense flavor. This cheddar is aged for a minimum of 16 months, which brings out its bold flavor profile. It’s a favorite among cheese lovers for its distinctive and powerful taste. Our thoughts: mild mold, grassy, little sharp, slight crumble, a little salty, semi hard, and good paired with wine.
Goudas
Cobb Hill Cheese Oh My Gouda (Vermont): Made in the traditional Dutch style and aged 2-4 months. The high-fat milk makes this a smooth and creamy cheese. It’s made from raw milk from pastured Jersey and Holstein cows. We thought it was paint, creamier, smoother, not as sharp, fruit notes, and cheeseburger ready.
Kazoo Gouda (Oregon): Offered by Umapine Creamery. known for its variety of cheeses, including Gouda varieties. Our notes: citrousy, not sharp at all, young chedder, medium firm, rubber notes, and soft.
At Large
Rogue River Blue (Oregon): A blue-veined cheese from Rogue Creamery that has won the hearts of cheese lovers across the globe. Each cheese is aged for 9-11 months, allowing it to develop a dense, creamy texture and a beautiful ivory color that’s marbled with distinct blue veins. The cheese is wrapped in Syrah grape leaves soaked in pear liqueur, giving it a sweet, sharp bite and a unique finish. In 2019, it made history by becoming the first American cheese to be named the World’s Best Cheese at the World Cheese Awards. We thought it was guava, slightly sharp, a little fruit, firmer, and a smooth finish.
Boogy Meadow Farm Fiddlehead Tomme: Fiddlehead Tomme is produced at Boggy Meadow Farm. It’s made from raw milk and is named after the fiddlehead ferns that grow in abundance along the banks of the Connecticut River during the spring months. The cheese is cave-aged for about six months, during which time it develops a brown-gray rind. The texture is firm, close, and smooth, and the flavors are balanced and grassy, with clean lactic notes. We thought it was bell peppery, tasted like a cheese it, guessed it is aged the most, tasted baked, perhaps a little sour.
Our Favorites and the Road Ahead 🏆
Among our favorites, the Hunter Extra Sharp Aged Cheddar (Vermont) and the Rogue River Blue (Oregon) stood out. Their flavors danced on our palates, leaving us eager for more.
Do you have a champion cheese that could compete in our next round? Share your suggestions!
What are the next stops on the cheese journey? This weekend is the Oregon Cheese Festival. And, next week, I travel to Seattle Washington where I plan to taste more delicious cheese from Murray’s Cheese.
Who will make it to the final round? Will it be a Cinderella story or a victory for the favorites?
I'm having severe fomo since I developed a lactose intolerance and dairy-free cheese is just not the same! But I enjoyed your journey and I felt like I was there in spirit!
Thanks Kacey. Now I’m craving some good cheese!