“Cheat Sheet”
In order to ensure a seamless grazing experience, we designed a Honey Blossom cheese “cheat sheet” for you. Use it to discover the types of cheese included on your board and their perfect pairings, or to simply impress everyone with your cheese expertise. Enjoy!
Délice des Crémiers
The Délice des Crémiers is a triple cream soft cheese made from cow’s milk from the Burgundy region. This typical vineyard cheese ripens in cellars for at least 10-14 days and then continues ripening in the wooden box for another 2 weeks.
Tasting Notes:
Délice des Crémiers is a delicate and rich triple crème that will melt on your tongue. If you care to try the bloomy rind, you’ll discover that it provides a slightly salty tang on the finish.
Perfect Pairings:
Pair it with a flute of Champagne and fresh berries, or a lager. Délice des Crémiers also pairs perfectly with fresh fruits like apples, grapes or peaches as well as dates.
Brillat-Savarin
Brillat-Savarin is a triple cream dessert cheese that was created by cheese-maker Henri Androuët in the 1930s. It is produced by three dairies situated in the Ile de France region. Since classified as triple cream cheese, Brillat-Savarin has a fat content of at least 75% achieved by adding rich, luscious cream to pasteurized cow's milk.
Tasting Notes:
A matured Brillat-Savarin has a typical white, bloomy rind with an interior paste that is buttery-white in colour. The texture is dense, moist, and slightly chalky. The cheese has a milky aroma with lemon sour tones. Flavours are of butter and fresh cream.
Perfect Pairings:
Brillat-Savarin pairs well with Pale Ale and Champagne as well as fresh seasonal berries drizzled with honey, grapes and pears.
Manchego
Rooted in La Mancha, Manchego hails from milk of the Manchega sheep. Fostered on the pastures in the heartland of Spain, and aged between 60 days and 2 years.
Tasting Notes:
Manchego is a semi hard cheese identified by its distinctive herringbone rind and sweet, fruity, nutty, tangy flavour. It is pale yellow in color, with a firm and supple texture, and a pleasant grassy aroma. The fat content of up to 57 percent contributes to its richness.
Perfect Pairings:
Manchego can be enjoyed as is, or paired with olives or figs, as well as nuts like almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts. Or simply enjoy with your favorite crackers.
P.Jacquin - Edible Flower Goat Cheese
A delicate and mild fresh goat’s milk cheese with a coating of edible flowers. Produced by Pierre Jaquin & Sons in the Loire Valley France for 3 generations.
Tasting Notes:
This fresh goat’s cheese is known for it’s honey flavour enhanced by dried flower petals such as roses, cornflower and marigolds.
Perfect Pairings:
Our favourite pairing for this cheese is honey and a dried fruit & nut cracker.
Lingot Buche / Buchette / Ash
Delicate, ripened raw goat’s milk cheese with light nutty flavours obtained through slow draining and few week's ripening. Produced in the Poitou-Charentes region in the Loire Valley of central France.
Tasting Notes:
Buche and Buchette have a strong, pungent scent reminiscent of clover honey and lemons. Texture is spreadable with a gooey creamline beneath a fuzzy white and grey rind, contrasting against a slightly chalky center. A tangy, sour, and salty taste yields lactic and citrusy notes.
Perfect Pairings:
Pair Ash-rinded Buchette with an acidic, fruity white, such as a sauvignon blanc or sancerre. It will also taste great paired with figs, fresh honey, pears, grapes, nuts and dried fruit.
Le Gruyère AOP
Le Gruyère AOP is a hard Swiss Alpine cheese. In 2001, Gruyère gained the Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOC). The cheese owes its typically fine flavour to the first-class unpasteurised cow’s milk from the region.
Tasting Notes:
Gruyère is known for its rich, creamy, salty, and nutty flavor. However, its flavor does vary depending on age: Young Gruyère has pronounced creaminess and nuttiness, while older Gruyère has developed an earthiness that is a bit more complex.
Perfect Pairings:
Gruyère is a perfect pairing with fruits, crackers, pecans, bread and mustard. An aged Gruyère can be eaten on its own, if you enjoy its complex nutty flavor. Gruyère cheese can be paired with beer, wine or whiskey, but the pairing will depend on the age of the Gruyère.
Whipped Ricotta
Ricotta is a fresh unripened Italian cheese made from whey (the watery residue left over from making other cheeses, such as mozzarella).
Tasting Notes:
Ricotta is a smooth cheese with a creamy mild taste and a thick texture. Its light flavour and low salt content make it perfect for using in sweet or savoury dishes.
Perfect Pairings:
At Honey Blossom we whip our ricotta cheese with fresh honey and lavender, and serve it with fresh fruit like figs or peaches depending on the season. Pair it with a fruity cracker and enjoy! When it comes to wine, reach for the Riesling here—sweet or dry both work—or other crisp white wines, including those with strong fruit notes. Other options include dry rosé wines and light-bodied, low-tannin red wines.
Grana Padano
Aged for a minimum of 9 months, the origin of Grana Padano dates back to the Cistercian monks of the Chiaravalle Abbey. The cheese is produced with milk from free-range cows that are let to graze on fresh forage and silage.
Tasting Notes:
Full-bodied, this hard cheese delivers a savoury and nutty touch with a dense and somewhat flaky texture. Creamy, mild and with a lingering aftertaste, Grana Padano has a fragrant aroma. On the palate, expect notes of caramel, butterscotch, and tropical fruit flavor.
Perfect Pairings:
Raid your basement for a Barolo, bubbly Prosecco or Champagne. Grana Padano tastes great when drizzled with honey and paired with figs, fresh and dried fruit and nuts.
Tête de Moine
Tête de Moine is a cylindrical, washed, semi-soft, raw cow’s milk cheese. It is produced according to the stringent standard of the AOP specifications and is matured for at least two and a half months on pine boards. Only eight cheese dairies in the Bernese and Jura hills are allowed to make Tête de Moine. We make our Tête de Moine ruffles by hand, using a wooden Girolle.
Tasting Notes:
It is made from a very fine-grained paste which melts slightly in the mouth. The lush grass and herbs of the pastures and natural mountain milk make Tête de Moine a product of its “terroir” and create it its incomparable flavour.
Perfect Pairings:
This cheese is so light and delicate we recommend to eat it on it’s own, without any specific food pairings. Wine wise, the savoury, nutty flavours of the Swiss Tête de Moine are best served with full bodied wines, such as a white Burgundy or for a red try a Rhône– the big flavours of this beefy cheese deserve a full flavoured wine.