Try 43 kinds of cheese I've never had before

The new Dutch cheese with a Mediterranean character is a real must for cheese lovers! The full-cream cheese made from pure Dutch milk is filled with a subtle balance of tomatoes, olives, and wonderful Mediterranean seasonings. A dash of garlic completes the masterpiece.

A bit of hyperbole in the description again, I think! ;) It was a semi-soft cheese with a bit more sharpness than a standard Gouda, but I didn’t think it really had much flavor besided the added ingredients. It had a bit too much tomato flavor for me (I’m not fond of tomatoes), but my daughter loved it.

Reasonable at $12.99/#, but I probably wouldn’t buy it again.

LOL. The only description on the label of this one is:

A creamy white cheese with cranberries.

That’s definitely true ;) This was another cheese that Tiger got me for our anniversary. It was very crumbly and hard to slice, but it had a nice buttery flavor with some sharpness to it that was very good. I thought that the whole cranberries went well with it.

I’d get it again.

Again, there was no description on this label. I don’t even know the brand; just that it was from Sunflower Farmers Market, where Tiger bought it as an anniversary present for me. Basically, this is a goat cheese soaked in red wine.

The cheese was semi-soft and a bit musky, although not nearly as much as the Anthotyros that I tried last May. However, the flavor was strong enough that I couldn’t taste the red wine at all in it. The cheese was also one of the oiliest I’ve ever had.

It was ok, but not a favorite of mine.

BTW, although I’ve continued to try new cheeses for this goal over the last few months, I’ve been slacking on taking photos. This one is from flickr.

There really wasn’t any description of this cheese on the label, but here’s what it says on the company’s website:

This favorite from Beecher’s fleet of artisan cheeses celebrates the great thirteenth century adventurer Marco Polo – credited with bringing pepper and other discoveries to Europe. Beecher’s Marco Polo takes lightly milled green and black Madagascar peppercorns and blends them with our creamy cheese. The result is cheese with bite and texture, sophisticated yet approachable.

I liked this one quite a bit. The cheese itself is semi-hard and fairly mild. I liked it sliced pretty thin, otherwise you sometimes get an almost-whole peppercorn. A coworker who I gave a piece to thought that the pepper was too strong, but my daughter (a big black pepper fan) loved the cheese and was disappointed that I didn’t save her more.

I managed to lose the label but the price was relatively rerasonable, around $15/pound, and I bought it on sale for about $1/# less than that. I’d buy it again.

The label says:

Oakwood Smoked Cheddar, unlike many smoked cheeses, these are naturally smoked in a kiln with oak smoke for a few days rather than being flavored with a smoking flavour. This cheese has been universally popular even among those who do not care for smoked foods and has a flavor, texture, and appearance appreciated by all.

This was one of the best smoked cheeses I’ve ever had! Fairly hard and sharp. Excellent smoked flavor that permeates the cheese to the center but doesn’t drown out the cheddar flavor.

Expensive, at $22.99/pound, but worth it!

This is an Edam style cheese seasoned with red hot chili peppers. Imported from Holland.

I’d call this a semi-soft cheese with medium sharpness. It melted fairly creamy on the tongue. There was some kick from the chili peppers, but other than that the taste was very light.

This was on sale for $11.99/pound, but even the regular price of $12.99/pound isn’t bad for an imported cheese.

Pretty good overall, but not spectacular.

Wow, quite an impressive description on the label:

Traditional, non-pasteurized hard cheese made from cow’s milk. It is cylindrical in shape, pale yellow to amber in color. The natural rind is smooth and hard. It has a compact texture with a few pinprick holes. Its texture is dry, but not crumbly, and it feels pleasantly oily in the mouth. The rind carries the marks of the wooden moulds in which it is drained. The characteristic smoky flavor was originally the result of the cheese having been stored close to the shepherd’s night fires. There were no chimneys in the simple…

And it cuts off there- apparently that detailed description was too long for the label ;)

But from what I found out online, this cheese (AKA Idiazábal cheese) is from northern Spain, but genuine Idiazabel cheese is made from sheep’s milk, not cow’s milk. The piece that I had definitely tasted more like a cow’s milk cheese to me. And I doubt that they’re selling an unpasteurized cheese in my local grocery store.

Whatever this cheese was, it was fairly hard and sharp. It reminded me of a parmesan but wasn’t as hard. I thought that the flavor was somewhat nutty, like a Swiss, but I didn’t notice any “smoked” flavor at all.

Not bad, but nothing outstanding. Not something I’d buy regularly at $21.99/pound.

The only description on this label was:

Naturally smoked with Apple & Hardwood

OMG, the aroma of this cheese was practically orgasmic ;) And the smokey flavor was delicious. But I think that Mozzarella was the wrong cheese for all of that effort. Like most mozzarellas I’ve ever had, the taste of this one was very mild. I couldn’t really taste anything except for the smoked flavor.

I can’t remember exactly what I paid for it but it was relatively reasonably-priced: around $14-16/pound for the 8-ounce piece I bought. But the same company makes a smoked cheddar (and also a smoked gouda) that I think might be better with the heavy smoked flavor.

“A new cheese from Switzerland with a uniquely different flair. It is a mixture of a semi-soft cheese with black olives and is aged a minimum of 60 days. Served as an appetizer, or even warmed as in raclette.”

I certainly didn’t try it “as in raclette,” (yeah, I know what that is, but the small piece I bought wouldn’t go far) but it was very good as an appetizer. This cheese was semi-soft with medium sharpness. The olive flavor was present but not overpowering. The cheese was very creamy- softer than I usually prefer, but delicious.

Like many of the imported cheeses I’ve bought for this goal, the main thing preventing me from eating it more often is the price- $19.99/pound.

The label claims:

Strong, finely aromatic mature cheese with the taste and harmonious aroma of the finest alpine herbs.

I would pretty much agree with the label on this one. It’s a bit “stinky,” but has a very good flavor. It reminded me of a high-quality Parmesan, but softer. Moderately sharp, and the herbs (you can’t see them in the photo, they’re on the bottom of the wedge) added a nice flavor.

I liked it quite a bit, but $19.99/pound is pretty steep to buy on a regular basis.