For today's cheese day we are sampling Yancy's Bergenost w/ Peppadew. First, let's admire the cheese. What does the cheese consist of? It is a triple-cream Norwegian butter cheese, and created very soft and sweet, explaining why it is preserved in green wax. It is speckled conservatively throughout with peppadew, a pepper discovered and propagated by a South African farmer named Johan Steenkamp in 1994; they have been called "the next big thing" in fruit and have a flavor and texture very reminiscent of an olive pimento.

This cheese was produced by Yancey's Fancy company who produce cheeses sold all over the country. The cheese received a gold medal at the 1999 New York State Fair Cheese Contest. Yancy's skyrocketed to success on the the great Limburger Craze in the early to middle part of the last century. But they are currently famous for their four varieties of cheddar cheese curds, "a delicious and nutritious cheese snack for kids and adults."

If you're lucky, these folks will be making your cheese...


The cheese cuts smoothly, which seems to indicate that it would be tailor-made for grilled cheese. The bouquet is faint, however, leaving one to wonder what delights, or horrors might await the tongue.

Biting into the bergenost is like biting into a sugarless marshmallow or an unsalted chip: what you expect in the arrival of the cheese, a rush of rich flavor, is the opposite of what you get. In the face of blandness, the peppadew could be expected to add some personality to the otherwise low-key bergenost. However, like pair of agoraphobics their shyness in the company of one another clashes. This may have something to do with its being South African, but I cannot be sure.



In spite of its immaturity of flavor, I am going to give the cheese a rating of 'so-so.' A cheese, like a child, cannot be blamed for not being able to meet one's heightened expectations. In this case, with the word "peppadew" and the description of "triple-cream" (and the reputation of the Yancey Fancy company) I was expecting something to blow me away with a tremendous blast of flavor. Thus, also like a child, I was possibly ignoring the subtlety, which is in fact what makes a cheese, or a child unique and worth keeping alive.

Why not decide for yourself?

Labels: bergenost, cheese, fancy, pepadew, yancy's