While at the Provvista open house on Sunday, I met up with Matt Day, owner/monger of Mt Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend, WA. Great guy, great product, great everything. Like most cheesemakers, they are experimenting with different cheeses for future production. We chatted, and somehow I scored a couple of wheels of their current "Cheer Trial" cheese, a small surface-ripened cow's milk round that's washed in local Finn River (hard) cider. He wanted my feedback. So I thought I'd give it here, for all to see. The two wheels were labeled "A5" and "A6," and the A6 was my favorite. After each cider wash, it was allowed to completely open-air dry (the other wasn't) and the texture was firmer and more fudgy. It was less salty than A5, and the cider flavor was slightly stronger--which I liked. I did manage to share them with friends after my own evaluation, and most agreed with me. Honestly, I was surprised: I normally like the softer, oozier cheeses.

Hello! Kris Blondin here from STINK Cheese-Meat in Tacoma, WA, back again to review another lovely cheese from Point Reyes. I was waiting with great anticipation for the next sample to be dropped at my door, and last week it landed with a bang! This time around they have sent me/us a Tomme, which is a cow’s milk cheese that has been aged for 18 months.

The notes sent with the sample described the aroma as “citrusy”, but I noted a distinct nose of browned butter and grass. Weird? Maybe, but that’s the cool thing about sending a sample of something to several people – you’re going to get different reactions.

The texture is very firm but it truly melts in your mouth. You don’t expect it to get creamy, but it does. The protein crystals are firm and frequent through out each taste. So much of your taste buds are utilized with this cheese. There’s sweet, salty, and definitely umami or savory. Thankfully, no bitterness or worse yet, sour, but this cheese does make my mouth water.