Rogue Creamery Smoky Blue, Making a Believer Out of Me

Dear Reader,

Something you may or may not know about me is that I am not a huge fan of "smoked flavor" foods. This merits some clarification, so let me assure I do in fact like smoked meats. I will eat smoked pork all day and be a happy man, smiling my way right into a heart attack. What I don't like is smoked flavor on foods that should not really be smoked. The greatest and most notable offender here is, yes dear reader I'm going there, the humble cheddar. I have yet to find a smoked cheddar that is anything but a subpar cheddar with some bleh smokiness added to it, adding up to nothing at all. Low quality smoked salmon? So gross. Smoked chevre? Why? The sickly sweet and sticky texture and flavor that accompany most run of the mill smoky-whatevers is just rubbish. Through and through. That's assuming the initial product was any good, and we all know that's wishful thinking.

So.

When I saw that Rogue Creamery, legendary for their blue cheese range, made a smoked blue... I was skeptical. Friends, comrades in curds, caseophiles, I am hereby admitting to having found a truly delicious smoked cheese. Smoky Blue is a good cheese, a good blue, and a good smoked. It is a good. Good.

Origin: USA, Seattle Washington

Milk: Cow, unpasteurized

Rennet: V-v-v-v-vegetarian!

Affinage: 4-6 months

Notes: Cold smoked for 16 hours over hazelnut shells. What you know about a next level hipster smoking process?

Thoughts: Imagine a strip of bacon. Now imagine you’re dunking that strip of bacon in gorgonzola and eating it whole. You’re now getting a bit of an idea of Smoky Blue. The smoke, while definitely present both in aroma and flavor, is not in any way overbearing or artificial. Instead it is rather subtle and develops over the course of the flavor, constantly playing off the understated bite of the gorgonzola and carried perfectly by a carefully balanced creaminess. 

The Cheese Manifest, Cheese List, and Cheese photogallery of the FCA are all up to date and ready to start churning out misguided posts again, hope you all had a lovely Christmas/Holiday/Standard day of the week.