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Name: Cheddar
Producer: Various
Milk: Pasteurized/Raw Cow's Milk
Age: 1-10 years
Price: Varies largely

It’s amazing that I’ve taken this long to get here, reviewing the most ubiquitous of all cheeses: cheddar. In truth, though I felt the need to validate Swiss cheeses, cheddar is perhaps the most maligned of all. I can’t even begin to think about the sort of dyed, ultra-processed cheese products that either go under the name of cheddar or are seeking to capitalize on its famous yellow color.

Name: Rajya Metok
Producer: Village of Ragya, Tibet
Milk: Pasteurized Yak
Age: 2 months+
Price: $21.98/lb

"Tibetan Yak Cheese". The name itself sounds a bit mysterious and more than a little absurd.

I first heard about Yak cheese in May, during Tibetan Yak Cheese Week. Ironically, having to sell cheese prevented me from going to the event, but I kept the thought in the back of my head. When I found out iGourmet* carried it, I had to try some.

Name: Serra da Estrela
Producer: Various (Serra da Estrela, Portugal)
Milk: Raw Sheep
Age: 60 days+
Price: $26.00-$32.50/lb

High in the Serra da Estrela mountain range of Portugal, artisanal cheesemakers have been producing this, their namesake cheese, almost the same way for centuries. Starting with raw sheep’s milk (it has to, since the cheese is DOP protected), Serra da Estrela is completely handmade; even the curds are cut by hand! The result is a cheese that is, though I hesitate to say creamy, certainly soft. Unlike triple-crèmes, with their melted butter consistency, I find Serra da Estrela to be thick and fatty. We’re talking warm foie gras here.

Name: Tomme Vaudoise
Producer: Rolf Beeler (Lake Geneva, Switzerland)
Milk: Raw Cow
Age: 60 days
Price: $9.99 ea.

For over a year, I've been having a love affair with a smelly Swiss man. Everything he gives me, I adore. My heart goes all aflutter at the mention of his name. Okay, I should be honest, it's more my stomach that gets going. You see, this Swiss fellow is none other than affineur extraordinaire Rolf Beeler. His Hoch Ybrig is probably my favorite cheese from Switzerland, and his aged Appenzeller changed the way I feel about this normally bland cheese.

Name: Soft Wheel
Producer: Twig Farm (West Cornwall, Vermont)
Milk: Raw Goat & Cow
Age: 80 days
Price: approx. $24.00/lb

There are some phrases which make me hungry at their mere mention. At the top of that list are "raw goat's milk" and "washed-rind". So, when I saw Twig Farm's Soft Wheel during a recent trip to Saxelby Cheesemongers, I had to pick up a chunk.

Name: Pyrenees Ossau Vielle
Producer: Various (Pyrenees Mountains, France)
Milk: Raw Sheep
Age: 3+ months
Price: $16.99-$25.50

It was once said, and repeated numerous times by Max McCalman, master fromager for Artisanal, that sheep's milk makes superior cheese. This could be traced to the fact that sheep produce less milk and, therefore, the milk they produce is more concentrated. But, I think it's all about the fat content.

Name: Vacherin du Haut-Doubs
Producer: Various (Franche-Comte, France)
Milk: Raw/Pasteurized Cow
Age: 1-2 months
Price: $39.99

I have a great reverence for seasonal cheeses. Whether it be a summertime Constant Bliss, an early fall Vermont Shepherd, or, in this week’s case, a winter Vacherin du Haut-Doubs (otherwise known as Vacherin Mont d’Or). There’s something to be said for a cheese whose availability is so limited and peak so self-evident. It reminds me that cheese is not just a simple food product, like its frequent companion, crackers. Cheese is the result of a process that started with an animal and a field of green. In this case, the animal is a cow and the field is in the mountains of Franche-Comte.

Name: Queso de la Garrotxa
Producer: Various (Catalonia, Spain)
Milk: Raw Goat
Age: 2 months
Price: $17.99-$26.25

This week, I return from my goat cheese hiatus to bring you one of my favorite Spanish cheeses, Queso de la Garrotxa. Despite the fact I've tasted hundreds of cheeses, it remains a completely unique offering and one I find myself unable to resist.

Name: Munster
Producer: Various (Alsace/Lorraine)
Milk: Raw/Pasteurized Cow
Age: 1-3 months
Price: $5.99-$16.50

A few weeks ago, I made an attempt to free Swiss cheese from its bland sandwich bonds. This week, I'll tackle another much maligned cheese, Munster. To start off, real Munster, the kind that comes from Alsace, has one thing in common with the sandwich stuff: its color. They are both orange on the outside and white on the inside. But while the sandwich stuff (which is spelled Muenster) is simply dyed, the real Munster's orange exterior is the result of frequent washings in brine. Yes, true Munster is a washed-rind cheese, and yes, it smells pretty ripe. In fact, I was asked to review this cheese in quarantine, to keep its smell away from others.

Name: Tomme de Savoie
Producer: Various (Haute-Savoie)
Milk: Raw/Pasteurized Cow
Age: 2 months
Price: $16.00-$18.99

I had intended to start this article by clarifying the meaning of the word "tomme", as there seems to be some confusion about tomme cheeses being a family of similar flavors. As it turns out, after consulting three different sources, I got three different definitions. While one stated it was a cheese produced from a numerous herds rather than one, another defined it as a small alpine cheese, weighing in at less than a pound. A third listed it as a cheese produced from skimmed milk from a French alpine cow.

I've moved my cheese! Though I loved my time at Murray's Cheese, I will now be mongering the cheese and other gourmet food items at the newly opened Cobblestone Foods on Court Street in Cobble Hill. It's in the spot Tuller Foods used to occupy, for those who visited that shop. Please stop by and say hello!

Name: Original Blue
Producer: Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. (California)
Milk: Raw Cow
Age: 6 months
Price: $15.99-$19.99

While most cheesemakers offer a variety of cheeses, there's something to be said for producing one single cheese and doing it well. That's what the Giacomini family have been doing since fall of 2000, when they first started producing Original Blue, their signature cheese.

Name: Vacherin Fribourgeois
Producer: Various (Friboug, Switzerland)
Milk: Raw/Thermalized Cow
Age: 3-4 months
Price: $14.99-$15.50

Cheeses from Switzerland get a bad rap, mainly due to that bland, holey, often processed fromage known simply as "Swiss cheese". In truth, the Swiss produce a wide variety of excellent cheeses, including this week's cheese: Vacherin Fribourgeois.

Name: Shushan Snow
Producer: 3-Corner Field Farm
Milk: Pasteurized Sheep
Age: 2-4 weeks
Price: $6.50-$8.00

Bloomy-rind is the new black. It seems that if you're a hip artisanal cheesemaker in the states, there's a loving attachment to that ivory mold. I can't say I blame them. With Brie and Camembert being such well known cheeses, there's some instant recognition inherent in the look of bloomy-rinds. Jasper Hill has their Constant Bliss, Willow Hill their Vermont Brebis, and 3-Corner Field Farm has Shushan Snow, named after the town where the dairy is located.

Name: Chabichou du Poitou
Producer: Various (France)
Milk: Raw/Thermalized Goat
Age: 60 days
Price: $5.99-$13.99/lb

After this week, I promise, I'll take a break with the goat cheeses. To me, on a tour of goat cheeses, there's no better place to end up than the Loire Valley, France's largest goat cheese producing region. Chances are, if you've had a French goat cheese, be it Selles-sur-Cher, Valencay, or even the simple Crottin de Chavignol, it originated in this valley. Today, we look towards the region of Poitou-Charentes, which produces the AOC protected goat cheese, Chabichou du Poitou.