I really am not sure why it has taken me two weeks to write this entry, but it has and I apologize. Thankfully I took notes on each cheese so I would not forget. In my original taste testing episode, I simply stopped at the local Whole Foods and picked up a few “nibblers,” or remnants of cheese, that I found interesting. I went home and tasted. Simple but good method. However, this time, I did things slightly differently.

On September 13, I spent 20 or so minutes tasting various cheeses at the local, large Whole Foods. (Not the smaller, old Wild Oats turned Whole Foods.) Instead of being forced to choose from only the nibblers, we (my mom, dad and I) were able to pick the brain of the cheese monger (His name is Jason. You should go say hi to him!) and taste any cheese we wanted. What was also awesome about this cheese tasting adventure was that there was a very knowledgeable customer also cheese tasting. Thanks to his expertise, we tasted some very interesting cheeses and went home with 4 cheeses and a desire to taste more. One cheese that I almost tasted, was rubbed in lard. Being that I keep Kosher, that was a no-no. I do wonder how that would have tasted, though. I also learned, courtesy the other customer, that a man who knows his cheeses has an easier time picking up the ladies. Is that true? Ha.

These are the 4 cheeses that I tasted, along with my thoughts. Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

In my quest to learn everything there is to know about cheese, Saturday evening, I traveled to Whole Foods’ cheese department. There, located in a little basket, are remnants of random cheeses ranging in price from very inexpensive to somewhat inexpensive. Because of this basket, one can try various cheeses without truly breaking the bank. As you will come to find out, I am not too fond of this particular Manchego cheese, but luckily I only spent $1.70 on it, and not upwards of $10.00 for a normal sized chunk. I would recommend that you find a Whole Foods, or check your local market, and try as many cheese remnants as you can. I plan to do this as much as I can in the future.

Unless otherwise noted, a lot of the information included in this and future cheese tasting write-ups is taken straight from Cheese Tasting by Laura Werlin. So far, it has turned out to be a great read.

Now let’s get started on the cheeses… Read the rest of this entry »