Black Garlic Manchego - Spain

This is Oveja con Ajo Negro - aka Manchego with Black Garlic. 

Oveja means "sheep" in Spanish, and that's exactly the type of milk these cheeses are made from. Made with the same process as Manchego, this particular cheese is layered with beautiful veins of Black Garlic paste to give it a really smooth, slightly sweet flavour to the sharp and salty cheese. 

In case you've never had Black Garlic before, it really is smack in the middle of the road between the intensity and pungency of raw garlic and the sweet, smoothness of roasted garlic. 

Technically and officially, this cheese is not called Manchego because Manchego is a PDO (protected) cheese which needs to follow rigorous rules to achieve the name. Since this cheese has additional flavours added, it can't be called Manchego at all! 

This particular cheese pairs beautifully with a Spanish Rioja or Merlot, and looks stunning on a cheese board! 

Sold by weight, $9.50/100g

Graskaas Gouda - Netherlands

This special cheese is incredibly seasonal! Coming from Beemster in the Netherlands, this cheese is made from milk from when the cows are first released to pasture in the Spring after spending the winter in the barns, when they have their first taste of fresh grass for the year! You know that feeling when you see the first buds on the trees or the first patch of green grass in the spring? That's how the cows feel too, and it's said that you can taste their springtime happiness in this cheese! 

With the first milking of Spring, this cheese is the richest, creamiest and sweetest milk of the season. Pair with fresh green veggies, use it shaved in a salad, or on its own with a Rose wine or Wheat beer. 

Sold by weight, $8.50/100g

Grey Owl - Quebec

Grey Owl is a surface ripened goat cheese from Fromagerie Le Detour in Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Quebec, and it's named after the revolutionary conservationist Archibald Belaney who was fondly known as Grey Owl for his appreciation for Native Canadian culture. It's covered in a vegetable ash, which gives it a dark slate coloured rind that is a stunning contrast to the stark white paste. The cheese is funky, and ultra creamy yet slightly crumbly, melts in your mouth and has a super punchy goaty flavour. 

This cheese is one of Canada's most well known cheeses internationally, and was actually featured in the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle!

Sold by weight, $9.50/100g

Stracciatella - Italy

Not to be confused with the Gelato flavour, Stracciatella cheese is a fresh, soft Italian cheese made by shredding mozzarella curds and mixing them into some heavy cream. It's most commonly known as the filling for Burrata, but grabbing straight stracciatella is a little easier to handle than burrata! Since you can spoon out exactly how much you want, you can distribute the creamy, cheesy goodness throughout your dish or appetizer without as much of a mess and much more evenly! 

Sold in 150g packages, $9.99 each

Murgella Burrata - Italy

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Pave de Paris - France

This gorgeous farmhouse cheese is made to represent the iconic symbol of Paris: the cobblestone bricks of the streets. Made by La Ferme de la Tremblaye just outside of Paris, the Organic farm has fully mastered the art of farmhouse cheeses by tracing every step of the way to ensure quality. They grow their own organic fodder, use the milk to make the cheese the day its harvested, maintaining the integrity of the soil which nourishes their livestock, and ripening the cheeses themselves. As a result, we get some incredibly high quality cheese to enjoy!

Pave de Paris is made with both cow and goat milk and is aged with an ashed rind. The dense paste is marbled - yellow from the cows milk and white from the goats milk - with a structured texture and beautiful flavour. Notes of salt, milk, minerality and fruitiness, this is a cheese that stops you in your tracks to savour and enjoy each nibble. 

Sold by weight, $13.00/100g

Trentingrana - Italy

Milk, salt, rennet and respect: the ingredients used to make this GORGEOUS "Alpine Parmesan" from Trentino, Italy. Made in the lower valleys according to tradition, this cheese is only made with mountain milk from small to medium sized family-run farms, where cows are fed exclusively with fresh grass, hay, and NO GMO feed. This gives the cheese a unique, sweet flavour that is amazing to use in place of Parmigiano Reggiano. 

Sold by weight, $10.00/100g 

Crottin de Chevre - France

Crottin de Chevre Germain is a moulded goat cheese made from pasteurized milk and matured in the Berry region of France. Under its fine, white rind hides a firm and slightly crumbly texture with a moderately funky yet delicate flavour. This cheese is a Loire Valley Chevre – meaning that it follows a very similar flavour profile to other cheese from the same region. Chabichou de Poitou, Valencay, Selles-sur-Cher are some examples. This cheese is on the milder side of the Loire funk spectrum, but it’ll give you a great idea of what to expect from this type of cheese.

Soldi n 60g wheels, $6.99 each

Taleggio - Italy

Taleggio is a lovely semi-firm, washed rind cheese from northern Italy. It is one of the oldest known cheeses to come from Italy, and is named after the caves of Val Taleggio. Its scent is quite strong and pungent, but the flavour is relatively mild with a fruity tang and lingering persistence. During the cheesemaking process, the cheese is washed with 5 different types of mold to create its rust coloured rind, and aged for 6-10 weeks. Pairs best with a light, unoaked red wine (such as Barbera), an off-dry wine such as Pinot Gris or Viognier, or Champagne Method Sparkling wines, such as Franciacorta or Cava.

Sold by weight, $8.20/100g

Peppercorn Pecorino - Ontario

Coming from our friends over at Creel & Gambrel, this local sheeps milk cheese has both a salty & peppery bite! Made with pasteurized milk and aged for about 6 months, this cheese has a great firm, salty bite while maintaining a degree of creaminess as you munch on it. Super versatile, this cheese is fantastic on a cheese board with something sweet or used in your favourite dishes, grated finely on top. 

Sold in 175g packages, $17.99 each

Grillou Halloumi - Quebec

Now that we've had some warmer weather, I don't know about you but I've been back out at the BBQ grillin' up a storm! And what better thing to grill than CHEESE!!! Coming from le Fromagerie Nouvelle France in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Grillou Halloumi is the perfect grilling cheese!! You may have had halloumi before on BBQ skewers - it's a firm, squeaky, salty cheese that when grilled/fried gets a beautifully golden crust which is just delectable. Cut it into cubes to fry it up, or slices to place on the grill, and you'll have a ridiculously delicious snack! Dip in some balsamic and EVOO for a real summery treat. 

Have you ever wondered why Halloumi doesn't melt at high temperatures? It's because during production, the curds are actually heated twice: the first time to separate the curds and whey (like every other cheese!) and then the second time those curds are reheated in clarified whey for an extended amount of time. This causes the protein network of the milk to strengthen and retract, helping it keep its shape. For a typical cheese to melt, there needs to be a looser structure to let the fat render out first, which doesn't happen as easily in such a tightly structured cheese such as this one! It's not that halloumi *doesn't* melt, it's that its melting point is significantly higher than most other cheeses.

Think of it like a fried egg versus a poached egg: when the raw egg touches the hot pan, it immediately coagulates on the spaces that touch, but the rest of it remains raw for a short period of time, allowing it to spread. When you poach an egg, however, the heat surrounds the raw egg and keeps everything contained until it cooks all the way through. In the context of the cheese, as it's "poached", it allows the network to retract and solidify from within, giving it it's squeaky, dense texture!

Sold in 200g packages, $17.99 each

Pecorino Crotonese - Italy

This is Crotonese, aka Pecorino Crotonese from the province of Crotone in Calabria, Italy. It is one of six PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) Pecorino cheeses from Italy, and is my favourite type of cheese to carry: something familiar, yet different! 

Most of the time when a recipe calls for "Pecorino", it usually is referring to Pecorino Romano, from Rome. It's super salty, super clean in flavour without a whole lot of funk. I've also carried Pecorino Toscano from Tuscany in the past, and that one's a lot less salty than the Romano variant. Pecorino Crotonese, however, has a slight sweetness and slight tanginess which I personally don't see in the other kinds! It also has a little bit of funkiness to it, which lends a beautiful complexity and je-ne-sais-quoi to the cheese as you eat it.

This cheese is also a touch softer (not super soft, just a little bit) than other Pecorinos, so it's a little easier to handle when grating or shaving. 

This is a fantastic choice for either grating in place of Parmigiano or other Pecorino, or just eating on its own with some Italian red wine & some fruits!

Sold by weight, $12.00/100g

Ricotta Salata - Italy

Ricotta Salata is a lovely cheese from Sicily, Italy and is the older sister of the popular Ricotta cheese! The word "Ricotta" means re-cooked and "Salata" means salted. This cheese is from the whey from sheep milk which is pressed, salted and aged for at least 90 days. It's milky white with a firm texture and salty taste. It does have a little bit funkier of a flavour profile than your "typical" fetas, but if you like a pungent, true Greek feta, this will be right up your alley! Or, if you're looking for something to replace feta in a dish (funky Street Corn, anyone?!) this would totally give you what you need! Overall, it’s mild but characterful - salty enough to season a dish, yet delicate enough to complement vegetables, pasta, and salads without dominating other flavours. 

Sold by weight, $7.00/100g

Oveja Romero - Spain

An artisan sheep's milk cheese made similarly to Manchego, this lovely cheese is rubbed with butter and rosemary. As the cheese matures the flavours absorb, the herbs are brushed off and new, fresh herbs are rubbed in! This process goes on for at least two months, and up to a year. Enjoy this cheese on a cheese board with a tall glass of Grenache for a decadent Spanish treat!

Sold in 225g pieces, $18.99 each

Blue Moo - PEI

Blue Moo is a cream-forward, perfectly balanced blue sure to impress. It's rich and buttery, yet light and flavourful - a great choice for serving to a group of people. Blue Moo is a triple cream blue cheese made with 100% PEI dairy that is thermalized (warmed, but not pasteurized - leaving many of the great microbes and flavour compounds that give PEI cheeses their unique flavour) inspired by recipes from the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Cow's Creamery only started making this cheese at the beginning of 2022 but has already garnered some well-deserved attention around the country!

Sold by weight, $7.50/100g 

Wildwood - Stonetown Cheeses, Ontario

Wildwood is an amazing farmstead cheese made from raw milk in St Marys, Ontario by Stonetown Artisan Cheeses. Hans and Jolanda Weber, both natives from Switzerland, moved to Canada in '96 bringing along their passion for cheesemaking! They started their own dairy farm, they have been caring for their herd of Holstein cows ever since, producing world class cheeses. Wildwood is inspired by the Swiss Appenzeller, a subtle washed rind cheese with decadent nutty flavours. It's on the firmer side, but still maintains its creamy and rich mouthfeel, and has a very approachable and delicious, complex flavour that has been sweeping International Awards Competitions in recent years. Not only is this cheese delicious for snacking, it also makes the most outrageous grilled cheese or cheese sauce. 

Sold in 170g packages, $19.99 each

Vezzena di Lavarone - Italy

This raw milk cheese comes from the Trentino area in Italy. It's a historical, slow food certified cheese that's incredibly complex and interesting, yet very familiar and approachable. It has a firm, crunchy texture, but isn't crumbly, and has this beautiful nutty, fruity, zippy flavour. We've got notes of hazelnuts, grass, caramel, spice, and a vaguely "cheesy" flavour with an aftertaste that bites you back. It reminds me a lot of super aged Sao Jorge from Portugal, but without the oily/waxy texture. 

This cheese has 3 ingredients: milk, salt and rennet. It is recognized under the "Slow Food Presido", aka the Slow Food movement, which works to protect traditional foods that are at risk of disappearing due to industrialization and mass production. With Vezzena di Lavarone specifically, that means that the cows must graze on the natural Alpine pastures of the Lavarone Plateau, and must be made by the small-scale producers who maintain the cheese's history, quality and authenticity. Historically, this cheese was used for seasoning in Trentino before WW1, and was commonly used in soups, dumplings, or whatever the dish of the day would be, and the cheese we have now is a reflection of what would have been eaten in Italy at that time. 

Sold by weight, $9.45/100g

Ski Queen (Gjetost) - Norway

This is the Norwegian Gjetost (pronounced yeh-toast) - a caramelized whey-based cheese all the way from Norway! Whey is rich with lactose, the sugar found in milk. To make the cheese, the whey is boiled until the liquid reduces and the sugars caramelize, which is where its rich, butterscotch/caramel flavour comes from! As a point of reference, Ricotta is also a cheese that is made from whey being re-cooked, however its cooked much less and therefore retains much more moisture. 

“Gjetost” translates to “goat cheese” in Norwegian, so this style contains at least some goat’s milk. This particular brand of gjetost also uses cow’s milk to make it creamier and soften the flavor! 

There's a really great article that explains Gjetost a little bit better here: https://www.cheesesexdeath.com/blog/gjetost-norwegian-brown-cheese

Sold in 250g blocks, $16.99 each

Townsley 8-Year Cheddar - Quebec

Coming from Quebec,  Townsley Cheddar has been aged for 8 years, and has a stunning complex flavour. It's very firm and crumbly, and is studded with tyrosine crystals (aka cheese diamonds!) to give it an additional crunchy texture to its profile. It has deep flavours, almost reminiscent of caramel or nuts, and evolves as you chew on it. This is a stunning cheddar that is meant to be savoured, and can stand alone and impress without any other accompaniments, but would also be enjoyable on a salad, sandwich or with spreads. 

Sold by weight, $8.50/100g 

Smoked Cheddar - PEI

Made by Cow's Creamery in Prince Edward Island, this 2-Year cheddar is slowly smoked over appletree wood for an 8 hour period which gives it a mouth-wateringly full, smokey flavour that is a perfect compliment to the cheddar cheese! PEI soil is very iron rich, so when the cow's eat the grass grown in this soil, the mineral content of the milk is different which also changes the flavour! This cheese is also made with thermalized milk which is gently heated, but not enough to be pasteurized, which preserves the microorganisms and enzymes of the raw milk that give this cheese its characteristic flavour. 

Sold in 180g packages, $14.99 each

Beurre d'Isigny - France

This BUTTER (not cheese, but butter!!!) is a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) butter from Isigny-sur-Mer in the North West of France, and is unlike any other butter you likely would have had before. It has a buttercup yellow colour and slightly hazelnutty flavour profile, and has followed a slow, traditional fermentation process that helps it develop its distinctive aromas and flavours. 

What makes this butter different than the butter you're used to? A few things -- the Isigny region has a warm and humid climate, and is close in proximity to the ocean and marshes. The cows, therefore, feed on grass that is rich in iodine, beta-carotene and micronutrients, giving the butter its own unique flavour! This butter is 100% natural, and has a fat content of at least 82% (for reference, Canadian butter is only 80%) with tons of Vitamin A and E. This butter contains no artificial flavours, preservatives or colouring. This butter also goes through a special production process called tourage that gives it a malleable yet firm texture, and is favoured by French pastry chefs when making light & airy puff pastries and crispy baked goods with buttery flavour! 

These bricks also have the addition of flaky sea salt, which gives the butter a salty crunch! 

For more information on this particular butter, visit the Isigny website here.

Sold in 250g bricks, $27.99 each

NOTE: The baskets pictured are out of stock until the new year, but we have plenty of the flaky salt bricks!