Salers, Similar to Cantal

What is Cantal? 

Oh, you've probably never heard of it.

Dear reader, cheese is not for the hipster. Not exclusively, at least. I mean... who knows.

Um.

Today we have a cheese that hails from France for a wee change. It is an unpasteurized gem that benefits from a rocky and volcanic homeland. That either means it tastes like grounded flights, cool sunsets, and weird floating stones, or mineraly, rich milky gold. 

Happy days it tastes like gold.

Origin: Auvergne, France

Milk: Cow, unpasteurized

Rennet: Animal

Affinage: 6-9 months

Notes: Made in the mountains and best eaten in the winter months, once it's been aged for a proper period. Save the dainty french chevres and complex Bries for the summer months, this is a hearty mountain man's cheese. Any heartier and it'd have a beard....

Maybe it really is hipster.

Thoughts: For such a firm paste it has a surprisingly smooth texture after the initial bite and hints immediately of a very meaty cheese. Salty and fruity notes play off of each other but the more notable flavor is the ever-so-slightly sour effect of the raw milk. There is a noted creaminess to both the texture and flavor but never so much as to overtake any other feature, more just carrying on and intensifying the already mentioned flavors. On the whole a hearty and satisfying cheese, rightly delicious.   

 Everyone should go to the Cheese Importers in Longmont and get their holiday orders in. Things are going to get pretty crazy, and you don't want to be caught with your pants down and out of cheese. As the classic saying goes.