When the word "geography" comes up in conversation about cheese it usually has to do with where a cheese is produced or where it originated. But the geography of Borough Market Cheddar can be found within a wedge of this remarkable cheese. There are different continents of flavor in this cheese. Areas closer to the center have a pure, raw, sharp English Cheddar flavor, slightly complex with lingering aftertastes that continue to please. Moving closer to the dark, cloth-wrapped edges the cheese itself gets darker, more complicated in flavor but still easily enjoyable. As you almost reach the cloth binding that restrains the outer limits, rivulets of blue-green oniony mold spring up but do not flood their banks into the Hinterland and truly add a wonderfully exotic note to this cheddar's chord. If you think you know what cheddar tastes like by only eating American supermarket version, do yourself a favor and seek out this amazing Cheddar from Neal's Yard Dairy's Borough Market shop in London. Comparing it to most American cheeses of the same name is like comparing something really sophisticated and beautiful to something plain and unimaginative.

Name: Borough Market Cheddar
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England
Date Purchased: 7/3/2007
Date Eaten:7/4/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $15.99/lb.