A Cheesemonger Shares the Pros and Cons of Flavored Cheeses
Editor’s note: Flavored cheeses are everywhere and while many turophiles may dismiss them, artisanal producers continue making them for good reason. We tapped David Phillips to explore the topic and direct us to some of his favorite examples.
Shortly after I joined Potash Markets in 2017, I found a mysterious cheese in the walk-in cooler. It was not in our scale system and I found no tasting notes for it. I figured it was a newly-acquired wheel, and I would need to introduce it in the near future. I was also wondering why in the hell the maker would want to ruin a perfectly good clothbound cheddar by putting peppercorns in it!
Flavored Cheese Criteria
I’ll admit it—I have a bias against cheeses with additional ingredients. However, if you were to ask any group of 20 people who love cheese to discuss Cheese with Stuff in It, I think you would find that many have the same bias. Great cheeses like Gruyere and Manchego are made primarily from milk, they might say, and cheeses made with chili peppers or chives are just… hokey. Is this an unfair generalization? Is there a place for spicy cheese alongside the outstanding Vacheron-style cheeses made by a growing number of American artisans? Isn’t cheese supposed to be fun? These are the questions I will seek to answer here. Before we go any further, it should be said there are pockets in the serious cheese traditions where additional ingredients are commonplace. Think herbed Gouda and goat cheeses, and truffle-laden cheeses from Italy and elsewhere. These are of course a far cry from the ubiquitous pepper jack.
After a great deal of thought, I have come up with four points to help you decide if a flavored cheese is worth your time and money. You ought to be able to check a couple of the four boxes, depending on the price of the cheese, and how you plan to use it.
Does it still taste like cheese?
Do you like the stuff that’s in the cheese, and/or is it quality stuff?
Does it cook well?
Is it fun?
Marco Polo photo courtesy of Beecher’s Handmade Cheese
My bias has softened over the years, and opening that wheel of Marco Polo, from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese certainly had something to do with it. I like pepper, and the tellicherry peppercorns added a burst of spiciness without overwhelming the cream and beet flavors of the cheese. So, for me this cheese checks at least two of the four boxes.
Milton Creamery cheddars photo credit Milton Creamery
Adding Flavored Cheeses to the Case
Since becoming a full-time cheesemonger and having that Marco Polo epiphany, I have often found myself enjoying the snappy, onion-dip flavor of English Cotswold. To our selection at Potash Markets I have also added 4 Alarm Cheddar from Iowa’s Milton Creamery, and after committing to this Cheese Professor assignment I have included in our cases a few guests like a bacon maple cheddar and blueberry cheddar. That bacon maple tastes a lot like a McDonald’s breakfast, and the latter a bit like a certain ghostly kids’ cereal. The 4 Alarm is balanced, so that it tastes like cheese. The incendiary ghost pepper is used sparingly, so that you get an occasional fiery bite, without losing your taste buds or the character of the other three alarms. It’s a natural for cooking—a coworker of mine uses it in the blend for her mac and cheese with great results. Milton, by the way, is currently rolling out some new cheeses, including one with caramelized onion that is outstanding. Lately my daydreams involve backyard cheeseburgers with that built-in onion flavor.
Toma cheeses photo credit Pt.Reyes Farmstead Creamery
Flavored Tomas
A couple of years ago we received samples of a new line extension from California’s Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company. Better known for a pair of blue cheeses, Point Reyes also produces a variety of cheeses referencing traditional European styles including an outstanding cheese called Toma, which has some characteristics of Havarti and Gouda. The release of three flavored Tomas in 2019 was accompanied by a tagline “Tomas with Attitude.” Well, knowing how good the company’s cheeses are, I had to temper my attitude and give the flavored Tomas a try. I liked them, and so did our customers.
When I spoke recently with Jill Giacomini Basch, one of the principals at Point Reyes, she admitted that she too had once held a bias against flavored cheeses. Her perspective changed however as she and her teammates mulled the idea of adding flavors to a cheese that they loved. While developing the Toma products, Point Reyes was careful not to lose the flavor of the cheese to the flavor of the inclusions (a term used by ice cream makers for the tiny candy hearts and stuff that go into their more intricate flavor concepts).
“Toma is a super-solid cheese,” Giacomini Basch says. “It has this sweet cream/buttery flavor and a silky texture. When we first released this great, everyday table cheese people were blown away. Cheese connoisseurs love it; chefs love it. We always thought if we were ever going to add a flavored line, Toma could be a great base cheese.”
Toma flavors photo credit Pt.Reyes Farmstead Creamery
Seven years after the introduction of Toma, at the encouragement of one of its distribution partners, the creamery’s culinary team began the R&D work on the line extension. Chef Jennifer Luttrell and her husband (Point Reyes head chessemaker Kuba Hemmerling), tested at least 15 concepts. In the end, three favorites emerged and were brought to market:
TomaProvence features the loveable flavor notes of Toma, spiced with Herbs de Provence. The blend includes rosemary, basil, marjoram, savory, and wild thyme. TomaRashi is flavored with shichimi togarashi, a Japanese spice blend containing nori, toasted sesame, poppy and hemp seeds, chili flakes and ginger. TomaTruffle pairs the Toma characteristics with the aromatic flavors of Italian black truffles from Umbria. At the company’s restaurant, Fork, visitors can enjoy dishes made with each cheese. Giacomini Basch says these cheeses are especially great for cooking, and the line has been very successful.
“We love the meltability,” she says. “They take steps out of the kitchen prep. Throw any of these cheeses in an omelet and that’s all you have to do. They are great with queso funditio, mac and cheese, and grilled cheese.”
For grilled cheese sandwiches, Fork uses the Tomarashi with chopped kimchi on a seeded bread, and it “just brings out all the nutty flavors,” she says. I think I could try that at home with some success.
Another important aspect of flavored cheeses is that they have broad consumer appeal. They can be gateway cheeses, leading to new experiences for the cheese-indifferent consumer, helping cheesemakers sell more cheese.
Flavored Cheddars
Pat Ford is one of the founders of Beehive Cheese. The Utah company’s flagship, Barely Buzzed, is a coffee and lavender affair that has spawned a portfolio of uniquely-flavored cheeses (that still taste like cheese). In talking with Ford, he noted that flavored cheese was not part of the initial plan for the company. But when he and his partner Tim Welsh first shared Barely Buzzed with people in the wholesale/distribution segment of the industry, those folks said they could “sell the hell out of it.” A distributor partner of Point Reyes expressed similar thoughts to that company about the possibilities of a flavored line of cheeses.
For me, I now get excited about flavored cheeses, especially those with ingredients that are already natural partners for egg dishes or sandwiches. Mustard seed, bacon, chive are a welcome addition to our cheese case, along with the most wonderful Alpines and bloomies from near and far.
In the end, I think we should remember that cheese should be fun, that cooking with better cheeses makes for better eating, and that snobbery is not a very nice trait. We should all prefer curiosity and enthusiasm. That said, can someone please explain to me why the latest craft beer trends include stouts made with marshmallow and IPAs that taste like a strawberry milkshake?