After a bite Fleming said, "Wow! This is now my favorite blue cheese!" I can't say Rogue Creamery's Smokey Blue cheese knocked off my title holder but it is a strong young contender. Last week I heard Steve Jenkins mention this cheese on the radio so I put it on my shopping list and sought it out.
The first bite for me was wonderful but ambivalent. "Is it smoked blue cheese or a blue smoked cheese?" Smoked cheeses are particular favorites of mine since the flavor is usually a single note--smoke. Smokey Blue is different. The blueness, the tang of piquant blue mold and the rich creamy cheese create a harmonic of powerful flavors. Smoked over burning hazelnut shells the cheese has a great balance between the forces of smoke and mold. This cheese has a kick but it is well-worth finding and tasting.
Name: Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft blue
Produced in: United States of America, California
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $19.99/lb.
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COMMENTS
Have you tried Rogue Creamery's unsmoked blue? It's quite good. The company was started by Tom Vella and continued by his son Ig Vella, who now runs the Vella Cheese Company in Sonoma. (In Sonoma, incidentally, they make an excellent 4-year old Dry Jack called "Golden Bear". It's hard to come by on the East coast, though.)
Posted by Milan | April 25, 2007 4:33 PM
Posted on April 25, 2007 16:33
It is a wonderful cheese, I highly recommend in on a hamburger. The history of the Rogue Creamery as above is correct, but it is in OREGON, not California and is no longer owned by the Vella family. All their blue cheeses are excellent, Oregonzola is our house favorite, and be sure to try their famous Rogue River Blue if you can find it.
Posted by Julia Fudge | March 2, 2008 1:33 PM
Posted on March 2, 2008 13:33