Whole Foods Market is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Rogue Creamery’s Oregon Blue Cheese by introducing a hand-selected special reserve edition of the raw milk cheese this month.
Rogue Creamery’s skilled cheese makers and apprentices hand make wheels of raw milk Oregon Blue the same way it was done 50 years ago. Wheels of Oregon Blue are quarter-turned daily and aged at least 90 days in Roquefort-modeled aging caves. Starting on the 75th day of its make anniversary, a wheel from each lot of Oregon Blue cheese is tasted, identified and scored by Rogue Creamery cheese makers and their team members twice per week until it is determined to be ready for Whole Foods Market. The Special Reserve Oregon Blue Cheese must meet nearly 30 criteria of rich blue flavor, creaminess, umami, tang, consistency and aesthetics for this 50th Anniversary label.
Because of the many seasonal and environmental variables in milk and the make and aging of this special cheese, Oregon Blue is aged to a multi-sensory experience including taste, aroma and aesthetic. Originally created a half century ago, Oregon Blue and Rogue Creamery have a long and robust history. The Creamery was founded in the 1930s by Tom Vella; he sought to expand into blue cheese in 1955 by traveling to the source of the world’s best blue cheeses: Roquefort, France. He toured farms, cheese factories, and curing caves. He returned to Oregon with plans for his own variety of blue cheese. Production began in 1957 and it became the first blue cheese produced in caves west of the Missouri River. Today, Rogue Creamery owners David Gremmels and Cary Bryant carry on the tradition of Rogue Creamery with Oregon Blue and other award-winning blue varieties including Crater Lake Blue, Oregonzola, Rogue River Blue and Smokey Blue.
Oregon Blue is the first raw milk cheese ever approved for export to the United Kingdom and France by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture; it will be available in Whole Foods Market’s UK stores in December 2007. This will be a historical moment for raw milk cheese made in America and supported by Whole Foods Market.
3 Comments on “New Cheese Introduced at Whole Foods”
Looking for a lady in the southeast region of Whole Foods Mkt.. Her name is Cerulia (sp ?)
She is a cheese specialist. I run a restaurant in Ft.Collins,CO
Please have her contact me if you know where to find her
Thank You, Phil C.
Looking for a lady in the southeast region of Whole Foods Mkt.. Her name is Cerulia (sp ?)
She is a cheese specialist. I run a restaurant in Ft.Collins,CO
Please have her contact me if you know where to find her
Thank You, Phil C.
Looking for a lady in the southeast region of Whole Foods Mkt.. Her name is Cerulia (sp ?)
She is a cheese specialist. I run a restaurant in Ft.Collins,CO
Please have her contact me if you know where to find her
Thank You, Phil C.