Blooming Cheese!

Whole Foods, Town & Country, MO; July 15th ... A Cheese Tasting Class!!!

I posted this on the DISboards but thought I might as well post it here, too.

Tuesday night Jay and I went to a cheese tasting class at Whole Foods - it was $20 per person, included three different wines, and lasted 90 minutes. I didn't take any pictures because this was our first experience with Whole Foods classes and I didn't want to scare everyone right out of the gate. We're going back in two weeks for a class that is exclusively about goat cheeses so I'll take my camera then and share the love here afterwards.

Anyway, this class was all about creamy, soft, rind-ey type cheeses. Can you mentally picture how large my eyeballs grew when we arrived and saw nine, yes nine, cheese samples waiting for each one of us??? And they were very generous portions and there were all kinds of accompaniments such as fresh fruit, toasted bread, strange nutty breads, olives, peppers, and onion balls.

Here's what we tried, and the order that I'm going to list them is mildest cheese flavor progressing to strongest.

Camellia: This cheese is produced in California at Redwood Hill Farm. It's a goat milk, camembert-style cheese that was named after one of the owners favorite goats (isn't that cute?). The flavor was mild and the texture was smooth ... I thought this one was almost too mild. Kind of bland to tell the truth.

Carvanzina: This cheese is made from pasteurized cow and sheep's milk and comes packaged in delightful little rounds. It's produced in the Italian Piedmonts in the "paglia" style, so named because the cheeses are aged on beds of straw (paglia means straw ... how 'bout that). Mmmmmm, this was a delicate, mild, creamy, buttery delight ... I could have stopped sampling right here and just eaten a few ounces of this with some fresh bread and a bottle of wine, it was that good. One of my favorites of the entire evening ... Jay also gave this high marks.

Cana de Cabra: This is a soft-ripened goat milk cheese that comes from Murcia, a mountainous area in southeastern Spain. Apparently that area is known for producing high-quality goat milk products. This was also a creamy, mild cheese but the texture was much more thick, like a traditional goat cheese and had a full, tart flavor. Jay said he picked up slight flavors of mushroom and I could swear that there was a hint of citrus as well, but it probably depends on who's doing the tasting. This was quite tasty!

Brillat-Savarin: Oh yeah, it's time for a cheese-induced orgasm! This is a soft, white-rinded cow's milk cheese (75% fat) named after the 18th century French gourmet and political figure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. It's a luscious, French, triple-creme brie ... like buttah, literally. This was my other favorite of the evening and our "teacher" suggested purchasing some golden raisins, macerating them in brandy for 2-3 days, and then sprinkling them over the top of a wheel of this cheese, served with some fresh bread on the side. I don't know about you guys, but I think I want to try this ... like yesterday!

Piper's Pyramid: This is a goat's milk cheese produced in Indiana and named after the cheesemaker's red-haired granddaughter, Piper. It's modeled after a Loire Valley goat's milk cheese but during production the cheese is formed into small pyramids with flat rather than pointed tops (and definitely not the traditional rounds). The cheese is then dusted with paprika and left to develop a slight bloom. It has a creamy texture but I thought the flavor was strongly sour and I didn't like the paprika at all ... it just didn't work for me. Jay enjoyed it but I don't think this is one that he's too keen to go and buy any time soon.

Old Kentucky Tomme: Another Indiana cheese, this is a raw goat's milk cheese ... buttery and rich, there were definite mushroom overtones coming through on this cheese. As you've probably surmised, I didn't really care for this one either. Jay really enjoyed this and so did the friends that we attended the class with ... I'm the only immature palate who dislikes mushrooms!

Herve Mons Camembert: This cow's milk cheese is made exclusively for Whole Foods. The aroma was quite strong and it had a peppery / mushroom flavor that I did not find wholly unacceptable. I thought this tasted quite good with the Pinot Noir we were drinking.

Tomme de Vaudoise: A raw cow's milk cheese from Switzerland, produced by some guy named Rolf Beeler whom our "guide" referred to as the "Cheese Pope." All I know is that once she said his name was Rolf, I pictured a furry little muppet dog playing the piano and then developed a raging case of the cheese giggles.
As for the cheese itself ... PEEEEEE-YUUUUUUUUW!!! This was the stinkiest, most offensive cheese I've ever tried to eat ... I thought it reeked of rotting fish and our friends actually said they thought it smelled like manure. Neither one of those things is an inducement to taste the cheese in question, ya know what I mean? While the texture was buttery and smooth the taste was overpoweringly mushrooms and nuts. The only person from our little foursome to finish this one was my dearheart ... the rest of us quickly reached for a glass of wine to wash the offensive taste from our mouths.

Rubiola: My notes are a little sketchy on this one but I seem to have scribbled something that indicates that this was a black truffle cheese ... a cow / sheep's milk blend that was nothing but 'shroom. Blech!

And that, my friends, is all I have to share! All four of us agreed that this was a great bargain with a wonderful variety of cheeses to choose from. When you compare what we were given for a total of $20 pp with the prices I saw listed last year for the cheese and wine pairings at the F&W Festival ($60 pp) this is the winner hands down. We will definitely continue to patronize Whole Foods for our cheese education and spend our vacation money at Epcot on other things that are more "reasonably" priced.

Thanks for letting me share the cheese love - any questions, just ask!