I forgot to take a picture of the cheese before I ate it all!! This is the label!

One of Ontario’s finest cheese makers has developed a new winner! Upper Canada Cheese has released a limited edition cheese called Cottage Gold!! I had the pleasure of tasting this cheese and can’t wait to tell you all about it.

The Upper Canada Cheese Company is located in Jordan Station, Ontario and they are best known for providing us with the esteemed cheese, Niagara Gold. Upper Canada Cheese prides itself on creating cheeses from the milk of the herd of Guernsey cows that they maintain on their farm. Their herd is one of very few Guernsey herds in Canada. The Comfort family does all that they can to create cheese of the highest quality for all of us to enjoy.They create cheese using traditional methods and no mechanical intervention. All of their cheeses are hand-made, hand wrapped and hand salted.

If you are a Canadian cheese lover, you have likely tasted Upper Canada’s most well-known cheese, Niagara Gold. Niagara Gold is an Oka style cheese, semi-soft with an orange tinted washed rind. The new release, Cottage Gold, is an updated version of its predecessor. Cottage Gold is also a hand-made, washed rind cheese, however, it is aged for a longer period of time (5 months). Cottage Gold is more like a cheddar, with a lower moisture content and more salt. From the outside, the Cottage Gold still looks very similar to the Niagara Gold – with an orange washed rind. Once the cheese is cut into, the visual differences are clear. This cheese has a darker coloured paste with a few more eyes (or holes!) spattered throughout. The aroma is a bit warmer and smells toastier and nuttier. There does not seem to be as much of the pungent aroma that I am used to finding on the Niagara Gold. With my first bite, it is clear Cottage and Niagara Gold are quite different from one another. The paste of Cottage Gold has more firmness to it, slightly like a cheddar as the official tasting notes suggest. The flavours are deeper and ring clear with notes of toast, nuts, salt and even a bit of butterscotch! The cheese smoothly melts, though it does so with a bit of resistance, which I expect to find in a firm cheese. Overall, I was VERY impressed with this new Upper Canada cheese. It did occur to me that the cheese reminded me of an aged gouda-style cheese, such as the Glengarry Lankaaster, as well as traditional cheddar. This was a delightful conclusion as gouda-style cheeses are amongst my favourite in the vast world of cheeses!

How to eat it:
Aside from eating a whole block on its own – which is what I did with my piece of Cottage Gold, there are lots of fitting places for Cottage Gold. Upper Canada Cheese suggests putting it on your burgers, crumbling it over a salad and using it to make Mac and Cheese. The last suggestion is one I intend to try – how did they know that Mac ‘n’ Cheese is my favourite food? I do want to emphasize that how I chose to taste Cottage Gold is not to be overlooked! This cheese will be a great addition to a cheese board, paired with jams, spreads, fresh baguette and local charcuterie. It will be even more perfect if you take that cheese board down to the dock at your cottage (or a friends!) and enjoy by the sparkling lake on a warm summer day!!

I hope they have Cottage Gold featured at the Great Canadian Cheese Festival this weekend in Picton, ON!

Here is Upper Canada Cheese’s website: www.uppercanadacheesecompany.com

Georgs, the (cheese)head of the Festival!

On Monday I had the pleasure of attending a media event for the upcoming Great Canadian Cheese Festival! I was very excited to be invited to Chef Jamie Kennedy’s Gilead Cafe to mix and mingle with other cheese-lovers of the area!! The event turned out to be a great collection of short speeches by people involved in both the Cheese Festival, such as Georgs (the big cheese of the festival, seen in the picture!), and renowned cheese educators such as Julia Rogers.

The small restaurant was full of people who loved cheese, and we had a chance to nibble on winners of the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix while sipping
Harwood Estate wine and Mill Street Beer! The main munchie event was when Georgs spoke about the Cooks and Curds cheese gala which will be taking place on the Saturday night of the festival. The Gala will feature a selection of FANTASTIC Canadian chefs who will be cooking tasting dishes using Canadia cheeses. One of the chefs taking part is Chef Jamie Kennedy – which is why we were at Gilead Cafe – to get a sneak peek of what to expect from the chef at the Festival. Out of the kitchen came white bowls filled with one of my favourite foods – POUTINE!! It was a bowl heaping with thin, crispy frites, braised oxtail, Black River Cheddar and thick gravy. It was a great way to end the event. If Chef Kennedy’s dish was a good indication of what is to come, I should definitely arrive at the Cooks and Curds Gala wearing elastic waistband pants!

Chef Jamie Kennedy's Poutine

Thanks again to the organizers of the Festval for the invitation to this event and I can’t wait until Picton in a few weeks!

Some of the Cheesy Finalists

WHEW, What a night!!! Last night was the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix Gala at the Palais Royale where the winners of best cheeses of 2011 were announced. I was lucky enough to have been invited and it was a very swanky affair put on by the Dairy Farmers of Canada! Hosted by TV personalities Ben Mulroney and Anne-Marie Withenshaw, the event was like the Oscars for cheese. I was seated at a table for Media Invitees that was full of bloggers, tweeters, etc, where we could sit with our phones/cameras out and not be considered rude.

The Gala began with a cocktail hour where drinks and hors d’oeuvres created by students at George Brown were served. The awards followed, with tastings of the winning cheeses coming out to the table in groups after about 4-6 awards. In total, we tasted 17 cheeses – which is a lot.. even for me! The categories (there were 17 of them) ranged from Fresh Cheese to Farmhouse to Blue to Cheddar (lots of cheddar!) and it was amazing to be able to taste so many all at once! Each cheese course was served with pairings, such as veggies, nuts and eggs as well as red or white wine to wash the cheese down. CLICK HERE to see the list of all the winners!

One of our 3 cheese courses

And what about the cheese? I was very happy to munch on some of my favourites, which certainly got the recognition that they deserved!! Amongst all of the cheeses were a few that have always stood out to me as fantastic Canadian cheeses, such as the Grand Champion, Louis d’Or, as well as Avonlea Cheddar, Blue Elizabeth, 4-Year Perron Cheddar and Lankaaster! A new surprise was the flavourful and complex Mont Jacob and the rich, velvety Tre Stelle Mascarpone! The big winner of the night was Louis d’Or, which won in 3 different categories, as well as winning the overall prize! Keep your eyes peeled for a blog post all about Louis d’Or, coming soon!!

Overall, it was a great event with lots of cheese to eat, and lots of people to meet! I can’t wait to start putting up some of the winners on tasteofcheese.ca and getting them to people all over Canada. Thanks again to Beatrice for the invitation, I had a great time!

Cheers to Cheese!

Good Afternoon Cheese Lovers! I hope that you are all having a cheesy day! I’m hanging around the office, snacking on a yummy cheese called Comfort Cream.

Comfort Cream is produced by Upper Canada Cheese Company (Hereby refered to in this post as U.C.C.C.), which is located in Jordan Station, in the Niagara Region of Ontario. Upper Canada Cheese is well known for its famous, washed-rind cheese, Niagara Gold.

Comfort Cream is a white, bloomy rind cheese that has a smooth, creamy golden-coloured paste. The aroma is light and mushroomy and the flavours are rich and buttery, with notes of truffles. The cheese is ultra-smooth over the palate and leaves a long, lingering tangy flavour at the finish. The soft white rind is salted by hand and the cheese is carefully hand-wrapped.

Comfort Cream is produced from the milk of Guernsey Cows that have a milk production which is lower in volume than many other breeds, however, it is higher in protein and various vitamins. The U.C.C.C. ensures that their herd feeds only on specially grown grains from right on their farm. Their cheeses are made using traditional timing procedures, and so it is produced as soon as possible after the cows are milked.

I love this cheese! It is similar to a Camembert, and the qualities of this cheese makes me wonder how it would stand up to being baked like a brie. The Upper Canada Cheese Company aims to produce cheese of the highest quality, and I think that it definitely shows. The Comfort Cream is a luscious, rich cheese experience! Now I just need to convince myself out of eating the second big hunk left on my plate!

So here they are.. my bottom of the barrel, or barn! BUT – don’t take this list to mean you shouldn’t try these cheeses. In fact, go try them and come back and tell me why you think I’m completely crazy for not liking them!!

Again, I’ll go from the best of the worst, to my least favourite! I won’t bore you with super long descriptions, just some key words.

5) Pecorino Toscano Stagionato DOC, Italy, Sheep Milk
- Salty smell, more barn-like than the other Pecorino we tasted, too peppery

4) Liberty’s Cream, USA, Goat
- Goat taste should be hidden more but it is very strong, very lactic, odd herbal flavour

3) Roncal, Spain, Sheep Milk
- Very gamey, a strong sheepy aroma, grainy texture

2) Cabecou Feuille, France, Goat
- This little cheese is wrapped in a Chestnut leaf which leaves a very bitter, unpleasant flavour; off spicy aftertaste

1) Le Moulis, France, Cow Milk
- Smells like a barn, unpleasantly tangy, underlying bitterness, very yeasty.
The Winner of my cheese losers!

And there you have it, the cheeses I wont be begging to try again.