Becoming a Cheese Monger, Part 1-The Americans

Tonight was actually my second time going to a cheese tasting. The first time was pre-blog and was Italian cheeses. My favorite that night was La Tur (yummmm-a creamy, bloomy, sheep-cow-goat mix).  The Hoboken Cheese Store does these tastings once a month, so hopefully I'll be able to attend all of them and finally become my dream in life: a cheese monger!

Tonight, we learned about American Cheeses. Surprisingly, we didn't taste any cheddar. Apparently, there are fancy cheeses made in America, not just in France!

My fellow cheese monger wannabes, April and Kayla

Our challenge for the night

I think my favorite was a tie between the Noble Road (below) and the Prairie Breeze.

The Noble Road is a soft ripened bloomy rind. It's soft on the inside. Kayla said it tasted like it was "straight from the cow". It comes from Calkins Creamery in Honedale, PA.

This one is the Prairie Breeze. It was the most cheddar-like of all the cheeses we tried. Almost like a mix between cheddar and Parmigiano. This one is made from the milk from Amish farms near the creamery in Milton, Iowa.

 And here is, by far, the worst cheese of the night, as evidenced by Kayla's face below haha..

I definitely do not recommend Bayley Hazen cheese. So nasty!

Anyway, it was such a fun night overall. It's always nice to try new things with friends and, of course, drink wine!

Stayed tuned for my next cheese monger post at the end of February! If you are interested in becoming a cheese monger, you can always go to the Hoboken Cheese store, they are so sweet there and really know their stuff! There's also Murray's in the city which has a few classes each week.