Flora (Capriole)
- Producer
- Capriole Goat Cheese
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Indiana
- Size
- 3 x 2
- Weight
- 6 oz
- Website
- https://www.capriolegoatcheese.com/
- Milk
- Goat
- Treatment
- Pasteurised
- Classification
- Semi Soft
- Rennet
- Animal
- Rind
- Geotricum
- Style
- Soft-Ripened (Brie-like)
- Flavor
- Flavor added to rind
This bloomy-rind goat's milk cheese is the newest from the Indiana-based Capriole Goat Cheese. Surface-ripened and with a wrinkly, white Geotrichum candidum rind, Flora has a creamy texture and delicate flavor. When it's young, the cheese is light in flavor and texture.
Beneath the rind, Flora has a layer of vegetable ash. While the ash itself is flavorless, but helps development of both the rind and the cream line. Flavors intensify and become more complex as Flora ripens over the course of 7-10 days. Over this time, it goes from light and fluffy to more dense and with a noticeable cream line.
Flora is named after Capriole founder Judy Schad's grandmother, who made cheeses from a neighbor's herd of cows. Schad is among the small handful of cheesemakers in the United States who were at the forefront of the farmstead cheese revolution, and she has vastly contributed to shaping the movement's future.
Schad has been making cheese since 1976, when she and her husband moved with their three young children from the suburbs to a farm in southern Indiana. They sought a sustainable lifestyle, a milk cow, and lots of gardens. When they ran the title on their new farm, they discovered that it had belonged to Judy's husband's great-great-grandfather in the 1870s.
These days, Capriole produces about a dozen different goat's milk cheeses across a wide spectrum of styles.
Tasting Notes
As Flora ripens, it develops from grassy and light to dense, creamy, and rich in flavor.
Pairings
Pair younger, lighter versions of Flora with floral saisons, rosé, or wheat ales, and serve with berry jams. With more mature versions, opt for stronger pairings like olives, charcuterie, or dark chocolate, and sup moscato, sancerre, or sauternes.
