Beecher’s cheese has slowly but surely taken a special place in my heart. They started in Seattle’s Pike Place Market back in 2003 and recently opened a location in New York. I will always have a soft spot for the time I worked in the Pike Place Market so maybe I am biased toward Beecher’s, but any praise I give them is deserved. They make good cheese and they do everything the right way. They are cheese makers that source high quality, local, natural, milk; and do it all in one of the most recognizable urban markets in the world. I enjoy all their cheese products but I think they really have something special with their sheep and cow milk clothbound cheddar, Flagsheep.
The name, Flagsheep is a play on their flagship cheese, “Flagship” (I hated writing this sentence more than you hate reading it). The odor is unique and you are hit simultaneously with the familiar sheep warmth and sweetness with the musty attic of traditional clothbound cheddar. Owing to the sheep milk, I presume, this cheddar style cheese lacks the hefty sharpness of its cow milk cousins. That, however, is not a bad thing. I truly enjoy clothbound cheddar and consider it one of my favorite styles of cheese, and the sharp minerality that hits you right below the jaw is one of the reasons. However, those cheeses are awfully big and sometimes you do not feel like eating a cheese so sharp it peels the skin off the inside of your mouth. When you bite into Flagsheep you get that sheep/cow interplay all at once; a two-part melody ricocheting around your mouth. Finally, a long, pleasant saltiness lingers, baiting your hunger for another bite.
As a budding cheese know-it-all I am lucky to live in such close proximity to so many great creameries. Beecher’s is surely one of them and I am proud to claim them as a member of my hometown team. I also like that they are bringing the Pacific Northwest ethic to New York, still abiding by their self-imposed mandate for local, natural milk.
I am doubly lucky to also be in one of the best brewing regions in the country as well. Hailing from Portland, OR (who’s beer scene is as good as anyone’s) Laurelwood‘s Vinter Varmer, is one of my favorite fall/winter seasonal beers, so I was pleased that it makes a great running mate to Flagsheep. It is nutty and warm with a bitter, short finish. Because it does not linger too long, the beer has a palate cleansing affect when paired with this particular cheese. I like it, after every sip I am prepared again for another mouthful of cheese.
-j.
