Saturday, May 14, 2011

Red Cloud, The Poison Dart Frog of Goat Cheeses

Except this little guy is only warning you of the intense flavor and aroma instead of, you know, poison.
It's a Goaterday miracle!

Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy, whom I had the pleasure of working for during the summer of 2010, boasts a wide range of handmade goat and mixed milk cheeses. A proud staple of it's Longmont community, Haystack has been making cheese since the late 1980s when it started out as a small farmstead operation. Today they have widespread recognition both in Colorado and nationwide and a number of well-earned awards hanging on their wall for their offerings such as today's Red Cloud. Named after one of Colorado's famed 14ers, or mountain peaks over fourteen thousand feet (4.2km), it is a washed rind specialty made with raw milk; a recipe for truly intense flavor.
Origin: Colorado, USA
Milk: Goat, raw
Rennet: Vegetarian 
Affinage: 60 days
Notes: Seriously, this cheese stinks! What is a major issue in primary school, however, is less of a putdown and more of a temptation on a cheese plate. Just keep it separate from other cheeses, it still doesn't play well with others.
Thoughts: Once you screw your courage to the cheese-eating place and take a bite, you are instantly rewarded with a bold and complex flavor. A very rich creaminess washes tones of the usual goaty sweetness over the palate at first, but this quickly develops to reflect the raw milk and the washed rind. That particular tang that is so unique to raw milk cheeses is displayed beautifully here and plays perfectly off of the meaty, fruity tones from the washed rind. Every flavor in this cheese comes on strong and yet they maintain a healthy balance throughout making for a very addicting, if slightly breath-souring, experience.

Caution
"slightly breath souring" is a bit of an understatement. It's like saying Obama "kind of poked fun at Donald Trump" in his White House Correspondents Dinner speech. Actually, this cheese will wipe the proverbial smug smile and self-righteous attitude right off your proverbial ridiculous-hair topped face and leave it griping the next day to its proverbial support base of business elites. 

eh-ehm...

What I mean by that is it's a very smelly, very strong cheese and you should probably put off your first-kiss plans with little-miss cutie (little-mister dapper) until you've gargled, flossed, and brushed. Twice.

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