Six years ago I was invited to travel to Europe on a cheese discovery trip. I had absolutely no clue just how lucky I was. Our first stop was the Jura, a majestic region of verdant mountains right along the Swiss border. We were there to visit a dairy making wheels of Comte and to tour the Fort St. Antoine where wheels of Comte are aged.
The cheesemaker inspecting the vat
Comte is perhaps the most magical of cheeses. There's no point in spending time describing the flavors and deliciousness of this cheese when you can come on down to the shop and try some. So we'll leave it at magical and then you'll just have to see for yourself.
What is incredible about our Comte is that our wheels are chosen out of tens of thousands of wheels as the best of the best. We work with the fantastic folks at Essex St Cheese to supply you with some of the best Comte available in the world.
My cheese adventure was also a selection trip for the folks at Essex. We were walking through the Fort so that we could try batches of cheese to see which ones were the best.
Benjamin's cheese mentor Daphne Zepos amongst thousands of wheels of Comte
It's hard not to spew hyperbole when talking about cheese or food in general but Comte truly is a food worthy of all the fuss. It's the star of a cheese plate, the necessary ingredient in a life changing grilled cheese, or your go-to for kickass fondue.
We're thrilled to offer three age profiles to you at our cheese counter this holiday season. 8- month, our signature 15-month selection, and the holiday-season-only 24-month selection.
Oh, and did we mention that one of our employees is a Frenchman who used to work at the Fort? Yeah, there's that.