The Netherlands is the second most cheese eating country.

Each person consumes 20 kilos per year.  That’s 44 pounds!

I believe the country would be happy to adopt me as I would contribute to pushing them into the number one spot.  Perhaps if I decide to move there, I will put that on my visa application.

One of the first things I did when I arrived in Amsterdam was stock up on groceries to help save on travel costs. I picked up a few different cheeses with generic labels and low prices at a chain grocery store. I had no idea what I was buying, but it all turned out to be delicious.

If the cheese at a chain grocery store is this good, the specialty shops must be incredible, right?

I signed up for a cheese tasting with one of the most historic Dutch cheese companies and tasted the best of the best cheese and learned why the cheese in this country is so damn good.

Cheese tasting in Amsterdam

I had never been to a cheese tasting before.

A wine tasting with cheese, yes. But the focus being on cheese was new for me.

Ron Pieters is a Cheese Master and leads the cheese tastings at Reypenaer in central Amsterdam.

Ron speaks about cheese tasting like a sommelier speaks of wine tasting.  In fact, he says it is very similar. Ron explained that when you taste cheese, you use your eyes, nose, and mouth.

First, you eat with your eyes.

Just like tasting wine, you first notice the color. Goat cheese is always white because a goat’s stomach breaks down beta carotene into Vitamin A which lacks color.

If you see white spots, it is an indication the cheese has been aged. Those are minerals, and they add a nice saltiness to the cheese.

Second, you smell it.

This is where I get a little nervous with wine tasting. I struggle to put a name to the familiar scents. But Ron made this much easier. We got this cheat sheet (which I love and am hanging on my refrigerator at home), and I was able to put the word to the smell.

The goat cheese smelled like fresh baked bread and sour cream, sweeter the more it had been aged.  It was a scent I was familiar with (and love) but hadn’t known how to put a finger on the specific components.

Lastly, you taste it.

It is really the after taste you need to pay most attention to; that is the real taste of the cheese. We used our cheat sheet again to describe the taste.

I was able to taste the difference that aging makes by trying the same cheese aged 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, and even almost three years.

Just like with wine, oxygen exposure gives the cheese its best flavor. That is why it is important to slice the cheese very thin. I’m sure you’ve noticed the cheese guillotine in my photos.  How cool is that?!!

 

The 24-month aged cow cheese was my favorite with hints of hazelnut and chocolate, the latter drawn out more with the port wine.

While we tasted the cheeses and accompanying wines, Ron explained the process of maturing cheese and the history of the Wijngaard family business that started in a 100-year-old warehouse with a natural microclimate, no heating or refrigeration, which is still used today.

While they have expanded into a second building called Reypenaer and use technology to create the necessary microclimate to produce such high quality cheese, the principles and original recipe are all still in practice.

Ron has great knowledge about cheese, but it is his fun personality and philosophy I appreciated most of all. He explained that tasting cheese is all about experimenting and learning.

You must not think. It is your own taste.

It is very important to learn about yourself.

A good philosophy beyond cheese tasting.

 

 

 

 

Disclosure:  I was a guest of Reypenaer, but I enjoyed this cheese tasting so much that I bought and flew a block of their cheese across an ocean, and I just discovered a website where I can have it shipped to me in the US.