Tasting Notes: Cypress Grove, Humbolt Fog

One of the most beautiful cheese's I get to cut when cutting through the hundreds of pounds of cheese that we go through at the Sacramento Co-op is called Humbolt Fog. Now this isn't a new cheese to the scene, in fact quite a few people have heard and tasted this cheese, but for those that don't here's some info on what your missing:

Humboldt Fog is an elegant, soft, surface ripened cheese. The texture is creamy and luscious with a subtle tangy flavor. Each handcrafted wheel features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior to give it a distinctive, cake-like appearance.

This cheese is such a joy to cut as it's covering in a beautiful white blooming mold that is softer than velvet to the touch, and upon cutting creates beautifully uniform slivers of white cream centered by a vegetable ash line.

The taste is soft and creamy, somewhat chalky if there is age on the cheese and has a slight tang to it's flavor if it's young. There are many stellar options in cheese from Cypress Grove including: Purple Haze, Truffle Tremor, and Bermuda Triangle

• For a simple dessert or snack: serve with honeycomb, pears, and a crisp white wine.
• Place a slice atop a salad of spinach, apple, mandarin oranges, walnuts, cranberries, and red bell pepper, and drizzle with raspberry-balsamic vinaigrette.
• Humboldt Fog also pairs nicely with wild mushrooms and other earthy flavors.

Just think of the possibilities!