BEEKMAN BLAAK CHEESE REVIEW

Well, the Beekman 1802 Blaak cheese arrived.  It was very well packaged.  What looks like a label is actually a card that has the Beekman 1802 Blaak name on the front and detailed instructions on the back showing you how to serve and care for your Blaak cheese.  

Upon removing the string and card, you find that the cheese is double wrapped.  This keeps it fresh and presentable.  When unwrapping, you'll see the care with which they take at Beekman 1802 in making sure your cheese gets to you exactly as it left Sharon Springs, NY (their hometown).

Here it is unwrapped and in all of it's beautiful "Blaakness".  The choice of coating the rind in the black wood ash gives this a very striking appearance.  It is sure to wow your guests when presented. We would recommend a white serving dish for presentation.  Yes, the black ash is food safe and edible, actually adding a slight smoky flavor to the overall bite.  

A word of caution, the black ash on the rind does come off very easily, as you can see on 2nd Man's hands, but all that means is you need to be careful when cutting and don't wipe your hands on your clothing.  We found that simply using a paper towel or piece of wax paper was enough to keep yourself clean.  It's a fair trade off for such a great end result and we think it's kind of fun.

This is a semi-hard cheese.  It's more like what you might think of in an Italian style of cheese.  A little salty, yet deeply earthy and savory.  If you are worried about the goat cheese taste that some find a little too much (we don't), this has none of that.  It's a 60/40 blend of milks (60% goat/40% cow) so it creates a rich flavor with just a hint of the acidity that you get with goat cheese and yet you still have all the mellowness of a cow's milk cheese.

For best taste and texture, let it come to room temperature.  It slices beautifully, no crumbling at all, and the black coated rind is just visually stunning when served.  Yes, you can eat the rind, it's firm yet gives just enough to blend with the cheese perfectly.  It's a seamless transition from where the rind ends and the cheese begins.  We served it with some roasted Italian sausage, tomatoes and balsamic, toasted homemade bread and a glass of Malbec.  You can see a picture of that dinner here.  The next morning, we had fresh bread with some of my famous jalapeno jelly (more on that in a future post).  Wow, the sweetness and spiciness of the jelly was a fabulous compliment to the cheese.  Bottom line, we LOVED it!  We've only had it three days and we are 1/4 of the way into the wheel!  Our only regret is we don't have more!  We would recommend that you get on the waiting list to get some the next time it's available...this is a seasonal and aged cheese so it's not available year round.  You aren't obligated to buy it, it just lets you know the next time it's ready.  You can do that at their website HERE.

So a fabulous THANK YOU to the Fabulous Beekman Boys for being not only an inspiration, but producing a delicious and quality cheese that will be the hit of any dinner (or a midnight raid on the fridge, shhh, just don't tell 2nd Man).