France’s Brie cheese. Normandy’s Camembert. Italy’s traditional mozzarella. Let’s see. What other cheese legends? Oh yes, Australia’s blue-veined cheese, of course.
For more than 70 years, Australian cheese makers have been producing this blue veined cheese that comes in over 22 styles.
Though part of the same family, and thus essentially the same, Australian blue cheese are quite unique one intense characteristic to another. If to pick two words that best describe all these blue varieties, those would be “sharp,” as in sharp flavor and “strong,” as in strong aroma. Many people just call them stinky, and they’re not far from the truth. Australian veined cheese come carrying an array of odors and smelly features. All deliciously tasting, nevertheless, that is if you’re into stinky cheese.
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So for all the cheese lovers out there, here’s a list of top choices to tickle your taste buds. All made in Australia by Australians for everyone to enjoy.
King River Gold
At the foot of the Victorian Alps, quite close to Bright Town, central Victoria stands the Milawa Cheese Company. Famous for an array of cheeses, it is still their King River Gold that always steals the show. This is one of the company’s very first cheeses, a washed-rind with a soft interior and a decadent richness.
Pyengana
Produced in the far northeast of Tasmania, the place where a beautiful valley, with lush vegetation and fertile soil, stretches along the course of two rivers, Pyengana is one of Australia’s oldest cheeses. It’s crafted at the Pyengana Cheese Factory now at its fourth generation of cheese makers, which would make Pyengana cheese about 100 years old.
An artisan cheddar style cheese, Pyengana is rich in flavor and has distinctive aromas one cheese to another, being produced at different times during different seasons. It ranges from summer grass to herbs and honey aromas.
Oen
From fresh to washed-rind goat and cow milk cheeses, the Bruny Island Cheese Company in southern Tasmania is probably one of the most original cheese makers in the country, definitely not among the ones to make cheese as “should.”
Their bold cheeses include the Raw Milk C2, cheese only made from raw milk and the Oen, a king of the washed rind style. Made from cow’s milk, Oen has a unique flavor as do all of the company’s cheeses. Pungency and soft texture best describe this cheese.
Holy Goat Cheeses
Everything that Holy Goat produces is worth trying, but La Luna and Pandora are probably the two best pieces of cheese to come from the hands of this outstanding producer that is actually two producers by the name of Carla and Ann-Marie.
La Luna is a great mature cheese with a creamy texture and very flavorful while Pandora hides a gooey, very rich, very soft interior.
Fromart Cheeses
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Fromart is a producer in Queensland and a leader in handcrafted cheeses. It produces cow milk cheeses inspired by traditional Swiss alpine styles. Among their most notorious is the Devils Foot, an aromatic cheese, sweet and buttery.