River’s Edge Chevre – Up In Smoke Goat Cheese
In the quest to find new and interesting goat cheeses, I stumbled across this one recently at a local deli. From River’s Edge Chevre in Oregon, this smoked goat cheese has won several awards, placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the ACS Annual Cheese Competition.
The fresh goat cheese is smoked, and then wrapped in smoked maple leaves, which sounded intriguing. Normally, I would not have purchased this cheese as it was rather expensive (about $10 for 5 ozs), but we had a gift card and so decided to branch out a bit.
I have to say, I was rather disappointed. I suppose I wanted ‘spectacular’ but got ‘ok to good’. I thought the cheese by itself was a little bland, but it was improved greatly when spread on some fresh, rustic bread with a glass of merlot.
The cheese is very creamy and the flavor reminded me of sitting around a campfire, smoky wood with perhaps a lemony undertone. Overall though, the cheese didn’t grab my taste buds… in fact, I kept ignoring it until it got very moldy and I had to throw it out. So much for my $10.
Quick Facts:
Pasteurized goat cheese
Approx. $10 for 5oz