This Week's Tasting: August 7, 2017

Every week at Dairymaids we select six cheeses to include in our free cheese tasting. Whenever we are open, we are tasting cheese. We stock over 150 cheeses, so if these 6 don’t please you, we will find you the cheeses that do.

Cypress Grove (of Humboldt Fog fame) in California makes Truffle Tremor, a soft-ripened tomme with 100% goat's milk. They mix in bits of  black truffle to add an earthy element to the bright tangy goat's cheese.

Pepato is an Italian-style, raw farmstead sheep's milk cheese made at the Bellwether Farms in California. The black peppercorns studded throughout the cheese as well as the bright, tangy flavor of the paste make it the perfect snacking cheese!

15 Fields is a clothbound cheddar that comes from a farmstead dairy in County Waterford, Ireland. "15 Fields" refers to the 15 paddocks where the cows graze on fresh green grass. The Lonergan family only makes cheese from April to October, when the cows are grazing. Aged by Sheridan's Cheesemongers for over 8 months, the flavor is bright and grassy with meaty notes. 

A husband and wife team, Marieke and Rolf moved to Wisconsin to start a small dairy farm like the ones they grew up on in Holland. Marieke trained with Dutch cheesemakers to make true farmhouse gouda. Her first batches were released in 2006, and started winning awards in 2007. It's a testament to their high quality milk that Marieke is able to get such robust flavor from her cheeses. She uses only raw milk, and ages the cheese on Dutch wooden shelves within their cellar. This batch is aged 2-4 months and lightly smoked to make her signature Smoked Gouda.

Caraway to Heaven is a smooth, semi-firm raw cow's milk cheese studded with caraway seeds. The whole caraway seeds give the cheese a nice toasted flavor that makes it great for the cheese plate or for melting.

Asher Blue is a robust, raw milk blue with a natural rind from Sweet Grass Dairy in Georgia. Sweet Grass practices rotational grazing to insure that their mostly Jersey cows are on green grass for as much grazing time as possible. 

Our wine of the week is McPherson Cellars' Albarino from Lubbock, Texas. It is a spanish varietal with notes of peach. We taste wine from 10am to 2pm on Saturdays.

Our pairing of the week is a Mixed Berry Conserve from American Spoon in Michigan.