August 2024 Newsletter
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| Table of Contents1. Welcome 2. Cheese News 3. Upcoming Events 4. Cheese Tip of the Month: Cooking with Soft Cheeses 6. A Cheesy Story: Cheese Camp Report |
| Welcome!Happy August! Apologies for skipping our July newsletter – but we hope you didn’t miss it because you were enjoying time away from your computer, phone, or tablet screen this summer. The blip in our schedule was for good reason, of course! There’s a lot going on behind the scenes at Street Cheese this summer. Courtney took a week-long trip to Buffalo, New York, at the beginning of the month for the American Cheese Society Conference – which is where the winners of this year’s cheese competition were announced. She details the trip in this month’s “Cheesy Story” at the end of this newsletter. We submitted two formal offers for buildings in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood. They are both great spaces and we are excited to hear back from the landlords to hopefully begin negotiating a lease at one of them. Along with that, we’ve reached out to some contractors and an architect to start getting bids as soon as we begin leasing negotiations. Once all of that falls into place, we can hopefully put a timeline on the shop opening. Please send all the good vibes as this process chugs along! We’ll definitely be back next month with updates – and hopefully some exciting ones at that. In the meantime, we’ve got a good number of events scheduled this month (including one today that is perfect for all you dog lovers–get your tickets ASAP if you want to join us!) and some really tasty cheeses in stock. We’re also piecing together our events schedule for the rest of 2024. The holiday season is the busiest time in the cheese year, and we are going to make it the best one yet! Thanks for reading, friends. We’re happy to have you on our mailing list. — Cheers and Cheese, Tailor & Courtney Co-Owners, Street Cheese LLC www.StreetCheeseSEA@gmail.com |
| Cheese News |
Beecher’s Handmade Cheese Flagship Reserve. Pasteurized cow’s milk Clothbound Cheddar aged 15 months, Seattle, WA. Not to brag or anything, but this cheese is an award winner. Read all about it below in “A Cheesy Story,” but basically since this year’s first and second place Best of Show cheeses at the American Cheese Society Judging & Competition went to Canadian cheeses, Flagship Reserve is the best cheese in the US. This crumbly-firm, nutty-sweet cheese also won gold at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin earlier this year, won a bronze medal at the 2022 World Cheese Awards in Wales, and won first place in its category at the 2022 American Cheese Society awards. It’s made from the same curds as Beecher’s Flagship, but only on days when the composition is just right—and then in a traditional clothbound truckle shape that is aged in open air rather than in a cryovac-sealed block. It’s going to be a richer, more flavorful and dare-we-say classier cheddar than the Flagship we all know and love.
Cypress Grove Chèvre Hatch Chili Chèvre. Pasteurized goat’s milk soft, fresh cheese with roasted Hatch chilis, California. This is a seasonal fresh goat cheese that is only available from Cypress Grove in the summer time (yes, that Cypress Grove—the one that makes Humboldt Fog and Truffle Tremor). Creamy, spreadable, with a hint of a kick, this cheese is as good on a cheese board as it is spread on a burger, stuffed into a pepper and baked, or used as a dip for fresh seasonal veggies or crinkle-cut potato chips.
Essex Street Cheese Manchego 1605 Artesano. Raw sheep’s milk uncooked-pressed cheese, Spain. This is a rare Manchego in the landscape of Spanish imported cheeses: not only is it made with raw milk and allowed to grow a natural rind, but it’s also made in a small, artisanal dairy with milk from one herd of sheep. There are fewer than 10 cheesemakers making farmstead Manchego in all of Spain—meaning the type of Manchego that Don Quixote would have enjoyed is in short supply, but this is a prime example of that cheese. This is also our favorite Manchego: sometimes it’s fruity and reminds us of pineapple upside down cake; others it is a bit nuttier, channeling big roasted-almond vibes. Eat it on a cheese board, shave it on a salad, pair it with pork charcuterie, olives, and a glass of wine, or add it to your dessert plate with fresh figs, a drizzle of honey, and some nuts.
Jasper Hill Farm Willoughby. Pasteurized cow’s milk soft-ripened, washed-rind cheese, Vermont. This cheese has got the funk—but in a very approachable, meaty and savory sort of way. We love eating this cheese with pickles of all kinds, warmed and spread on hearty bread, or served with French fries or tater tots. It also sings with grilled vegetables and steak.
Poitou Chèvre Délice du Poitou des Deux-Sevres. Pasteurized goat’s milk soft-ripened, ashed-rind cheese, France. This tasty morsel of an oval-shaped cheese has a chalky-creamy texture beneath its striking black vegetable ash coat. The flavor is milky, bright, and slightly tangy—but not too tangy as these types of goat cheeses go. Serve it with fresh or preserved stone fruits like plums and cherries, with a dry Loire Valley white wine, or with a green salad.
Street Cheese Online Store
| Upcoming Events Here are your opportunities to get cheesy with us this month and into the beginning of September.Guided Beer and Cheese Pairing: TODAY Friday, August 2, from 6:30-8pm at Growlerz in Columbia City (5269 Rainier Ave S, Seattle). Join us to taste through four cheeses and four beers while your pup plays. Please note that all dogs attending must be fully registered with Growlerz in advance. (Note: you do not have to have a dog of your own to come.) Human tickets are $25 each and pups are half-off with a human attendee; register your dog on Growlerz’s website and then buy your pairing tickets on Eventbrite: |
| Pop-Up Cheese Shop: Saturday, August 3, from 4-7pm at Discover Burien in Downtown Burien (611 SW 152nd St, Burien). We will be set up to sell cheese by the wedge or wheel, charcuterie by the chub or sliced-to-order, and accompaniments to go with your cheese or meal. This is also the official release date for our August Cheese of the Month Club. To place a regular pre-order or to sign up for next month’s Cheese of the Month Club, head to our web store: |
| Logan Brewing’s Anniversary Block Party: Saturday and Sunday, August 10-11, from 1-6pm at Logan Brewing Company in Burien (510 SW 151st St, Burien). Come celebrate Logan Brewing’s fourth anniversary with us, two other food vendors, live music, and special beer and merch releases from Logan. Entry is free.Fruit Academy Class 1: Loire Valley Wines with Cheeses: Saturday, August 17, from 4-6pm at Fruit Wine Co.’s Fruit Events in Bellevue (1850 130th Ave NE, Suite 2, Bellevue). Sommelier Jackson is excited to share 6 Loire Valley wines with you while we pair them to some French and not-French cheeses. Tickets for this regional wine and cheese pairing deep dive are $65 each and are available through Fruit Wine Co.’s website: |
| The Cheese Course: Spain: Sunday, August 18, from 10a-12:30p at The Pantry in Ballard (1417 NW 70th St, Seattle). Let’s take a trip to Spain with our taste buds! We’ll taste through 9 Spanish cheeses, each with a story of its own. In addition to learning about the history, geography, and style of the cheese, you’ll also get to try each one with a different pairing accompaniment. Tickets are $100 each and are available through The Pantry’s website: |
| Pop-Up Cheese Shop: Thursday, August 22, from 4-7pm at Discover Burien in Downtown Burien (611 SW 152nd St, Burien). Same drill as on August 3. Place a pre-order for pick-up through our web store: |
| Cheese & Banchan Pairing: Friday, August 23, from 6-9pm at OHSUN Banchan Deli & Café in Pioneer Square (221 1st Ave S, Seattle). We and our friends at OHSUN are really excited for this class, which will feature five cheeses paired with five types of house-made Korean banchan, as well as heavy appetizers and a glass of wine or an iced tea. There will of course be lots of story telling and mind-blowing flavor combining. Tickets are $95 each and are available through OHSUN’s website: |
| Bumbershoot: Saturday and Sunday, August 31 and September 1, from 12:30-9pm at Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion (305 Harrison St, Seattle). If you are coming to Bumbershoot, then you might as well eat cheese! Come see us in the Wine Garden atop the Fisher Pavilion. We’ll have a few different cheese and charcuterie plates available there. Tickets for Bumbershoot are $85-$350 each (kids under 10 get in for free), and are available here: |
| Bumbershoot Tickets |
There are so many great soft cheeses available in the peak of summer that it’s hard not to want to eat them all–especially when so much great produce is in-season. We’re thinking especially of fresh Chèvre, Mozzarella, Burrata, Crescenza di Stracchino, Paneer, Feta, and Fromage Blanc. Cooking is a great way to approach these luscious cheeses—but depending on which one you use, there are special approaches to using a soft cheese in the kitchen. Here are some general tips to help you get the most out of summer’s special softies and all the flavor and texture they offer.Low, slow heat: Just like with many dry, aged cheeses, you need to apply gentle heat to very soft, fresh cheeses. Even though they are no longer milk (cheese is a fermented food that started as milk, but its makeup is very different from milk!), approach heating soft cheeses the same way you’d approach heating a pot of milk on the stove—by trying to avoid curdling or scalding it. Heat abuse can cause off-flavors and unpleasant textural separation. This is especially important when you are trying to incorporate cheeses like Fromage Blanc or fresh Chèvre into a soup, dip, or even a pasta salad with freshly cooked (read: hot) noodles.
Shred, chop or dice before adding: If you are using a firmer soft cheese like Paneer, Mozzarella, or some versions of Crescenza di Stracchino, it will incorporate more evenly into heated dishes if you chop, dice, or shred it first. Especially if you have lots of liquid in your recipe, breaking up the cheese this way helps you avoid clumping and spreads the cheese evenly throughout the dish.
Time your toppings: if you are picnicking, camping, or dining outside, wait to top your dishes with cheese until closer to when you are going to eat. If you are crumbling, shredding, or plopping a soft cheese onto a pasta salad or something, it will hold up and retain its shape, moisture, and flavor better if you wait to add the cheese. Pull your cheese from the refrigerator or cooler 20-30 minutes before serving the dish, and then add the cheesy topping 5 minutes before eating.
Don’t sweat it: we all love grazing, but soft cheeses don’t love being out for hours on hot days. If you are leaving out a snacking board for the afternoon, only put a small portion of your softest cheese on there at a time and replenish it as needed. This will keep the cheese at the right temperature, fresh and moist, and most importantly, not sweaty.
The clock is ticking: remember, soft cheeses are also called fresh cheeses for a reason—and that reason is that they aren’t aged or trying to be. Once you open a soft cheese, the health department wants you to consume it within 6 days. Now that doesn’t mean your cheese will automatically go bad or poisonous on the seventh day, but it does mean the quality of the cheese will degrade and it will be more likely to grow molds or exhibit off-flavors or weird textures. It’s best to keep the soft cheeses fresh and indulge in them more quickly—especially if you’ve had the package open and out on the counter for a bit on a warm day. We recommend trying to find a few recipes or applications for each cheese you buy so you can get you full money’s worth before it’s too late.We hope this quick primer helps you feel comfortable incorporating more soft cheeses into your summer cooking. With their fresh, milky qualities and creamy to supple textures, they can really help brighten up your cooking during this time of year.
A Cheesy Story: Cheese Camp Report
It happens every July in a city somewhere in the US: cheese industry folks from across North America and the world descend upon the town, overwhelm its bars, restaurants, and ride-share cars, pack into the local cheese shops, markets, and grocery stores, filter into the museums, bookstores, and art galleries—and then just like that they vanish. This phenomenon, known affectionally as Cheese Camp, is the American Cheese Society’s annual conference.
The conference travels to a new destination each year, alternating among the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast. Since the pandemic, the conferences have taken place in Portland, Oregon, in 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2023, and this year in Buffalo, New York. The conference lasts three days, and people attend whose job titles include cheesemaker, cheesemonger, farmer, food scientist, cheese grader, distributor, broker, sales representative, food safety manager, educator, writer, and more. It is equal parts family reunion, professional networking smorgasbord, and educational nerd fest. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to travel on “cheese business,” here’s an inside look.
This was Courtney’s fourth American Cheese Society (ACS) conference. She arrived early in Buffalo because, as a member of the ACS Certification Committee, she volunteered to support the Certified Cheese Sensory Evaluator (CCSE) exam the day before the conference started. The CCSE exam and the Certified Cheese Professional (CCP) exam are the two certifications available for cheese professionals in North America, and are two of just a handful of cheese-industry certifications worldwide. (Courtney has both of these certifications, in case you were wondering.)
The CCP exam is a 200-question multiple-choice test measuring candidates’ mastery of a Body of Knowledge which serves as a common vocabulary for all folks working in the industry. The CCSE exam tests those candidates’ perceptions along a common lexicon of terms that are used throughout the industry to assess cheese quality and sensory attributes. The CCSE exam is split into “single-item attributes,” where test-takers smell spiked containers of milk and identify the aroma of whatever the milk was spiked with, and “cheese identifications,” where they view, smell, touch, and taste 12 different, unnamed cheeses and identify specific qualities about those cheeses. When these two three-hour exams end, a busy evening of welcome and celebration receptions begins, crowned with a Cheese Crawl through the local bars.
The next morning, the educational panels begin. Topics cover a range of knowledge levels and skillsets. Here are the ones Courtney attended:
- Mongering for Makers and Making for Mongers – a conversation about the skills it takes to do each job, and how the two groups can effectively work together to sell better cheese—and more of it.
- Getting Out of the Silo: Small and Micro Business Networking for Practical Solutions – an open discussion session for business owners to talk about the struggles they face at smaller levels of scale and what resources or tips can be used to help them grow their businesses.
- Cheese for Real: Navigating Today’s Challenges and Opportunities, an Artisan Cheesemakers Panel – three cheesemakers discussing the things they are most excited about for the future of the industry, as well as the things that worry them most.
- Open Networking: Retailers – a discussion meeting for small cheese shop owners to discuss issues affecting their businesses this year and share tips, best-practices, and ideas as a group.
- To PDO or NO? – Three European cheesemakers and an affineur discuss the pros and cons of the Protected Designation of Origin system in Europe, and what American cheesemakers can learn from it. (Thomas Berglund from Almnäs Bruk in Sweden, maker of our Tegel and Wrångebäck cheeses, was on this panel!)
- Crafting a Future: Small Business Succession Planning for Cheesemakers – Three cheesemakers and a succession planning specialist talk about how a creamery can set itself for a new generation to take over so the cheesemaker doesn’t have to say “death” is their retirement plan–a common problem for many small creamery owners.
- Latin American Cheese: Street Food, Bites, and Beyond! – A tasting session featuring Mexican, Colombian, and Brazilian cheeses and cheese-centric dishes. In addition to tasting a selection of cheeses by themselves, attendees tried Mexican Pincho la Bandera (a skewer with watermelon, Panela, and avocado with chili powder), Brazilian Pão de Queijo com Requeijão Cremoso (pão de Queijo cheese bread with a creamy cheese spread on it), and Colombian Chocolate Santafereño (buffalo Mozzarella in a cup of hot drinking chocolate).
Courtney also spoke on two panels during the conference. “The Innovative Cheesemonger: Selling Without a Counter” featured Courtney and two other small-business owners, Meghan Lewis of North Dakota’s Milk Made Catering, a cheese-focused catering company with a cheese shop and cheese truck, and Kyra James of Connecticut’s Own Your Funk, a cheese-centric consulting and education firm. Courtney talked about how Street Cheese has been able to sell cheese in a mobile cheese shop, even providing sales numbers from events and talking through the regulatory hurdles we had to clear to start and run this business.
The other panel, “Collaborative Purchasing of Goods and Services: How Working as a Group Can Benefit Us All,” was hosted by the Guild Leaders Network and covered options and strategies for cheese guilds and other organizations or businesses to create bulk-buying, cooperative-model, or shared discount programs for their members or region.
As with any conference, there were plenty of interesting sessions happening at the same time as these. Some that Courtney was sad to miss were, “Tasting Session – Canadian Cheese: Coast to Coast,” “The Revolution of Dignity at Work,” “Cheese & Climate Change: Reimagining American Dairy to Mitigate Impacts, Build Resilience, and Pursue Real Solutions,” “Tasting Session – Almost Lost: Ephemeral American Cheeses,” “19th Century New England Cheesemaking,” and “Sensory Evaluation and Cognitive Science: Understanding Cheesemaking and Quality Through the Human Condition and Sensory Education.”
Other key events that happen during each conference year are the Judging & Competition Awards Ceremony, where the winners of each year’s cheese contest are announced (Courtney was one of the judges at the competition in June!), the Cheeseletes 5K education fundraiser race (which was virtual this year), Midnight Mongers Karaoke, a fundraiser and party where everyone sings karaoke with the words of songs changed to cheese-related topics, and Meet the Maker, a tasting event where hundreds of creameries and other food businesses sample their wares and create business connections.
Meet the Maker is a great opportunity to try new cheeses we don’t normally see in the Northwest, and Courtney had a fun time attending with Sarah Simiele, owner of The Curd Nerd, a cheese shop in Syracuse, New York, who has access to many of those cheeses. Folks who attend this event regularly insist the best strategy is to not try cheeses you have had before, because you can fill up and get cheesed-out quickly.
The Awards Ceremony is another fun event, with farmers and cheesemakers dressed up in their finery in hopes of getting to cross the stage while collecting awards. Different states bring things like foam fingers or flags to cheer on cheesemakers in their states, and the line of folks trying to get drinks before the event is really, really long. Washington’s cheesemakers won a good number of awards this year, and as we mentioned above under “Cheese News,” one of them placed among the Best in Show!
The cheese that was named Best in Show for 2024 was a Canadian cheese that you won’t be able to get in the US, Raclette de Compton au poivre from Quebec’s Fromagerie la Station. It’s a cow’s milk Raclette-style cheese with a line of pink peppercorns through the center. Second place for Best in Show went to yet another Canadian cheese we can’t get on this side of the border, Le Cousin from Quebec’s Fromagerie Médard—a soft-ripened, washed-rind cheese made from cow’s milk. Sounds like a trip to Vancouver is in order, right?
And so the best cheese in the US this year is really the third place Best in Show winner, Flagship Reserve from Seattle’s own Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. Beecher’s has done a bang-up job of placing Best-in-Show cheeses recently—in 2022, their Flagsheep tied for second place Best in Show—so it’s no surprise they did it again with the clothbound version of their Cheddar-style cheese.
Cheeses are selected for Best in Show from among all of the cheeses that placed first in their categories. Whereas the category judging is based on technical and aesthetic merit (being technically correct and sellable), Best in Show goes to the cheeses that the majority of judges liked the most.
It’s important to us to note here that Cherry Valley Dairy’s Herbed Rose Butter was named among the top 10 cheeses in the running for Best in Show—that’s right, a butter is one of the Top 10 Cheeses in North America—so just keep that in mind when we bring some more of that butter in this month.
The other Washington winners we’d like to congratulate for winning awards in their judging categories are:
- Beecher’s Handmade Cheese of Seattle: Plain Cheese Curds (2nd); Flagship Reserve (1st); 4-Year Flagship (1st); Marco Polo Reserve (3rd)
- Cherry Valley Dairy of Duvall: Unsalted Butter (1st); Herbed Rose Butter (1st); Coffee Butter (2nd)
- Daniel’s Artisan of Ferndale: Daniel’s Reserve (3rd place)
- La Familia del Norte of Ferndale: Mexican Manchego (2nd place)
- Fantello Farmstead Creamery of Enumclaw: Plateau (2nd place); Spicy Filomena (2nd place)
- Ferndale Farmstead of Ferndale: Fontina (3rd place), Smoky Scamorza (2nd place)
- Mountain Lodge Farm of Eatonville: Knapsack Feta (2nd place); Wonderland (1st place)
Our nearby neighbors to the south, Briar Rose Creamery and Don Froylan of Oregon, also raked in the medals. Go team PNW!
No trip would be complete without a little pre- or post-conference sightseeing, and Courtney was lucky enough to get a spot on the post-conference boat tour of Lake Eerie and the Black Rock Canal, featuring a tasting of cheese and alcoholic ciders from Upstate New York.
Courtney even got a last-minute invite to go to Niagara Falls on the final night of conference, including the super-soaking Maid of the Mists boat ride.
Planning a trip to Buffalo and want to know where to eat? The places Courtney got to try outside the conference center and hotel were Cluck Cluck Moo Moo and Allen Burger Venture; two that were on the list but she didn’t make it to were Betty’s and Osteria 166. And what about them buffalo wings? Well, the wing shop closed before she could make it. The two battling wing shops everyone was claiming were best are Gabriel’s Gate and Anchor Bar. So now you know, too.
And that’s a wrap on Cheese Camp 2024. We’ll be travelling to Sacramento, California, for next year’s conference.
If you have a hankering to try any of the award-winning cheeses, we currently have Fantello Farmstead Creamery’s Plateau in stock, we just brought in a wheel of Beecher’s Flagship Reserve for the August Cheese of the Month Club, and we are getting ready to order a wheel of Herbed Rose Butter from Cherry Valley Dairy. We’re happy to bring in any of the other cheeses you’d like to try, too. Just let us know!
Thanks for reading!
—
Courtney Johnson and Tailor Kowis
Co-Owners, Street Cheese LLC
StreetCheeseSEA@gmail.com
www.StreetCheeseSEA.com
