Beemster XO vs. the Nerds
Tasting Tuesdays have become a regular feature over at the Boston office, and when they asked me to pitch in, of course I said yes. It didn't hurt that they were sending me Beemster's XO Gouda, which is one of my avowedly favorite cheeses. XO is aged 26 months, and has a wonderful grainy texture because of it, along with a sharp-sweet-savory flavor like that reminds me of a liquor-filled, salted caramel bonbon.
Unfortunately, instead of sending me one wedge of this marvelous stuff, the folks at Beemster sent me six, and I don't have a squad of interns to absorb the calories. So to prevent overload, I enlisted my sweetie, culture's science advisor Dr. Minda Berbeco, and her colleagues at the National Center for Science Education for an impromptu tasting and secret experiment in what happens when you a corner a bunch of essentially shy nerds with a video camera:
Nerds tasting cheese
Quite humorous:) I like watching people who are unaware of the educated vocabulary used at cheese tastings. They are reaching for descriptions, unsure of just what they are tasting, but they still love it. Sweet! These scientists are obviously used to using exact terminology -- cute to catch them in a naive state:)
Not having the techncial
Not having the techncial terminology was clearly no barrier to their enjoying the cheese! I love capturing folks like this because it shows how enjoyment is completely independent of conniseurship. They don't know cheese, necessarily, but they know what they like.
It was the same thing when we had the Rush Creek Reserve tasting down at Occupy Boston: it's a pleasure just catching the look on people's faces when they taste something they like: http://www.culturecheesemag.com/rush_creek
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