by Austin Coe Butler
Chiriboga Blue has it all: an international love story, historical roots tied to two storied cheeses, a cult following, and the most unorthodox blue cheesemaking process you’ve ever heard of that all comes together to create a cheese with an irresistible flavor that, even more remarkably, will bring blue lovers and blue haters together.
Arturo Chiriboga was born in Quito, Ecuador, where his father had two small fincas. His father made fresh cheeses for the family’s consumption, and early on in Arturo’s childhood he became interested in cheesemaking. He wanted to study cheesemaking, but there was no place to do so in Ecuador, so he packed his bags and moved to Switzerland to study. At a Cantonal School in western Switzerland he met the love of his life, a Bavarian dairymaid, and three years later, once they finished their studies the two moved back to Ecuador to open their own creamery. Ecuador was plagued with political, economic, and social woes at the time though, and the two soon move to his wife’s home town of Heidelberg, a small town in Bavaria, Germany. Arturo answered a job listing for a cheesemaker at Obere Mühle, a celebrated restaurant and dairy in Bad Hindelang and soon became the head cheesemaker, making over 20 different cheeses. In 2006 he began making Bayerischer Blauschimmelkäse (Bavarian blue cheese), or what we now know as Chiriboga blue. All was well in Arturo’s life until….
Chiriboga Blue began infecting the other cheeses made at Obere Mühle! A solution was easily found though: Arturo moved production to Hofkäserei Kraus, where Albert Kraus makes Alex, Lisa, Red Casanova, and Alp Blossom–cheeses you’ve no doubt seen in our shop. At Hofkäserei Kraus Arturo was able to have his own space to make and age Chiriboga Blue.
Chiriboga Blue has its origins in two iconic cheeses that it bears no resemblance to at all. Arturo first wanted to make a blue cheese because he loved Gorgonzola, but found it very strong and wanted something milder and creamier. The recipe Arturo started with for Bayerischer Blauschimmelkäse was created by Basil Weixler at the start of the 20th century to create a German cheese to rival Roquefort. But Chiriboga is not like either of these storied blues (or any other blue cheese really) for an unheard of, and completely unorthodox, reason that has big implications for flavor.
It’s important to note that “blue cheese” is not a style of cheese but a technique of cheesemaking. Cheesemakers add blue mold (typically Penicillium roqueforti or P. glaucum) to to the milk at the start of the cheesemaking process, which allows the mold to disperse throughout the cheese and mature. The cheese is pierced to allow oxygen into the paste and inspire, or bloom, the nascent mold. The mold is inside the cheese and not being injected or introduced externally to the cheese by the piercing. But Chiriboga Blue is the exception to this rule. Arturo makes his cheese and then dips needles into a solution of blue mold and then pierces the cheese, thus introducing the mold.
In addition to this unorthodox introduction of blue mold via piercing, Arturo also does several other things that distinguish Chiriboga from other blues. Most blue cheeses are crumbly, salty, and spicy, all of which Chiriboga isn’t. Most blue cheeses aren’t “pressed” when they are in their forms, leaving their texture open, craggily, and crumbly, like Roquefort or Stilton. Chiriboga however is pressed and made with whole fat brown Swiss cow’s milk, which creates a dense, buttery paste that limits oxygen and contains mold to the piercings, creating a delicate blue flavor that isn’t spicy. Chiriboga is low in salinity, being brined in a salamoia, or brine, that is only 18% salt compared to the typical 24%. The cheese is also aged for a mere six to eight weeks before being ready to consume, whereas most blue are aged for three to five months, which limits the strength of the blue flavor.
The result is a blue cheese that is subtle, nuanced, and complex in its flavor that has something for everyone. It has the richness of clotted cream with a delicate yeasty tang and the faintest tingle of blue spice with a texture like warm butter or fudge. As an added bonus, Chiriboga is visually stunning, its dense ivory paste and subdued blue marbling give it the appearance of an ancient mill stone. There are many ways to enjoy Chiriboga. It pairs well with sweet wines like Riesling, Spätbegrunder, Trollinger, or Eiswein (ice wine). Simply spread on an Effie’s Oat Cake or fresh bread or used to frost meatloaf (allegedly), but my favorite recommendation comes from a German website, “läßt sich wie Eiskrem mit dem Löffel essen,” “it can be eaten like ice cream with a spoon,” as I am gleefully at the time of writing.