We don’t see many cheeses from Germany in this country, so a cheese from Bavaria easily drew my attention.
Chiriboga Blue, made at a creamery in Bad Oberdorf, near the border with Austria, is unusual on several accounts.
For starters, the cheese maker, Arturo Chiriboga, is Ecuadoran. Political turmoil in his home country motivated Chiriboga and his wife, who is of German descent, to move to Bavaria as young adults. He landed a job at the Obere Muhle creamery 17 years ago and has been there ever since.
Obere Muhle gets its cow’s milk from about 30 nearby family farms, whose herds range in size from three cows to eight. All the farmers are close enough to deliver the milk within 90 minutes of milking, a key quality consideration.
Chiriboga pasteurizes and cultures the milk, drains the curds and molds them, then flips the wheels a half-dozen times during the first 24 hours. This frequent turning distributes the fat and moisture evenly and helps give the 5 1/2-pound wheels a neat shape.
But curiously, Chiriboga does not inoculate the milk vat with blue-mold spores, the typical method for encouraging veins to grow in the maturing cheese. Instead, he pierces the week-old wheels with needles that he has dipped in a blue-mold solution.
Although needling blue cheeses is common practice to create air channels for the mold to proliferate in, introducing the culture via the needle is a technique unfamiliar to me. I don’t know of any other cheese producer who does this.
After the wheels age for about three weeks, the creamery wraps them and ships them to the U.S. It takes three to four weeks for them to arrive at Bay Area retail counters, so Chiriboga Blue may still be less than 2 months old when you sample it.
The rindless wheel measures 3 to 4 inches in height. A few blue-gray streaks ripple through the ivory interior, but the veining is minimal and the blue flavor subtle.
The smooth, spreadable texture reminds me of softened salted butter, ideal for slathering on walnut bread to accompany a salad. If it’s a robust taste experience you’re after, look elsewhere. Chiriboga Blue is more of a starter blue, for consumers who aren’t yet persuaded that blue cheese is for them.
The Obere Muhle creamery is organic and operates entirely off the grid, primarily on hydropower. What’s more, the enterprise includes a small inn, a well-reviewed restaurant showcasing the creamery’s cheeses and an antique shop – all in a village that, at least online, looks utterly picturesque.
Look for Chiriboga Blue at Cowgirl Creamery, Rainbow Grocery, Cheese Plus and Say Cheese in San Francisco; Pasta Shop in Oakland and Berkeley; and the Cheese Shop of Healdsburg. It may be in short supply for the next couple of weeks until a new shipment arrives.
Firestone Walker Brewing’s Walker’s Reserve, a bottle-conditioned porter, would be delicious with it.
Janet Fletcher teaches cheese-appreciation classes and is the author of “Cheese Beer,” “Cheese Wine” and “The Cheese Course.” Go to www.janetfletcher.com for a class schedule, or contact her at fletcher@foodwriter.com.