Cheese of the week: Italian Fontina

Name: Fontina (Italian, Aged)

Brand: Bambina from Roth Kase

Place of Purchase: HyVee in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: USA/Wisconsin

Price in Iowa: $10.99/lb

Milk: pasteurized cow'smilk

Processing: There are some very specific processing requirements for true Italian fontina. Raw milk taken from a single Alpine cow in a single milking, rennet added, the milk is warmed. The curd is pressed into molds and aged for three months in caves, with the cheese being salted and brushed every other day, respectively. I don't think that the cheesemakers at Roth Kase follow this protocol.

Texture: Elastic and Semi-firm

Color: golden cream

Rind: Washed

Aroma: strong, sweaty dairy smell

Taste: mild dairy, with a nutty aftertaste

Mouth feel: supple and buttery

Notes:I've had Danish Fontina before. It's softer, paler, milder in flavor and MUCH milder in aroma. The Italian Fontina is a stinky cheese with a wonderful flavor that is chewy and buttery at the same time. The Danish Fontina is a plain-tasting cheese that melts like butter in hot sandwiches. The Italian-style has a bite, and still melts like a dream. Whether you're going to add it to a cheese tray or melt it on your turkey club, this is a good cheese.

Libation of the WEEK: Yumberry Juice

Name: Yang-Mei Juice (aka Yumberry Juice)

Brand: Wei Chuan

Place of Purchase: Uni Mart, Ames, Iowa

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Country/Region of Origin: China

Tasting Conditions: Chilled.

Price in Iowa: $2.29 for 17 oz.

Description: A garnet-colored juice.

Flavor: Dark cherry, cranberry, pomegranate flavors with a musky aftertaste

Mouth-feel: Sort of cloying, sticky

Aroma: Woody, flowery and cranberry notes

Notes: So I finally hit the Korean store and grabbed everything I could. And I do mean everything. I grabbed every juice, fruit and nut I could find in the store. So, I should be good for the next month or so. This week, I decided to do another juice. Yumberries are a new "superfruit" coming out of China. Supposedly, they have been cultivated for thousands of years. They look like a cross between a cherry and a raspberry, and they have a deep berry flavor without a strong sweetness. The bottle of juice that I had is 50% juice, which makes me sad. It also has added sugar and acid, so I'm not sure how much of the real flavor is coming through. But, it's an interesting and unique flavor. It might make a nice addition to a marinade. Plus it's full of vitamins and antioxidants, so it's good for you too.

Cheese of the week: Cocoa Cardona

Name: Cocoa Cardona

Brand: Carr Valley

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: USA/Wisconsin

Price in Iowa: $19.10/lb

Milk: pasteurized goat milk

Processing: Original Spanish-style goat cheese, rubbed with cocoa powder and black pepper, aged eight months

Texture: Semi-Firm

Color: pale cream

Rind: Natural, with cocoa powder rubbed all over it

Aroma: mild diary with fruity notes

Taste: sharp diary, with complex, slightly bitter/spicy floral afternotes

Mouth feel: warm, firm, slightly dry cheese

Notes: This Cardona from Carr Valley was very different than the Sweet Vanilla Cardona. For one, there was no added sugar. I didn't detect as much of the sharp dairy flavors in the Vanilla. The cocoa and black pepper did add quite a kick to the cheese. I'm not sure how that sort of dry rind rub can work flavors all the way into the center of the cheese, but those bitter, spicy, floral flavors were ubiquitous throughout the cheese. The piece of cheese that I bought had the rind removed. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not, but I would have eaten a small piece of the rind (I always do, unless I am warned NOT to). Granted, a mouthful of pepper and unsweetened cocoa would probably have tasted terrible.

This is a good cheese, an exotic addition to a cheese tray. However, for flavor I would prefer the sweeter dessert Vanilla Cardona, over the Cocoa. That's personal palate preference. If you're more into savory/spicy flavors, then the Cocoa Cardona may please.

Libation of the WEEK: Litchi Juice

Name: Litchi Juice Blend

Brand: Ceres

Place of Purchase: Cub Foods, Ames, Iowa

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Country/Region of Origin: The Ceres Valley in South Africa.

Tasting Conditions: Chilled,.

Price in Iowa: $4.99

Description: A golden yellow juice.

Flavor: A slight hint of pear and tart, with a long-lived flowery finish and a nutty aftertaste

Mouth-feel: Crisp and clean

Aroma: Peach and apricot

Notes: I have tried lychees before, but always canned or in candy. Canned lychees have a skunky flavor that covers up the nutty after notes. The natural sweetness is masked in the lychee candies I have eaten. This fruit juice blend is the closest I have gotten to unaltered lychee flavor. Now, it is a pear juice and lychee puree blend, so some of the pear flavors might be coming from the base juice. But there's nothing else in this product, and pear juice has a pretty neutral flavor (other than sweet). There are some drink recipes that use this juice (here's one for a lychee martini). I enjoyed this juice, mostly for it's gorgeous color.

Cheese of the week: Edam

Name: Edam

Place of Purchase: Fareway Foods in Ames, IA

Country of Origin: Wisconsin USA from Churny Co. i.e. Kraft Foods

Price in Iowa: $3.99 for 7 oz.

Milk: pasteurized cows milk

Processing:

Texture: semi-hard

Color: pale orange

Rind: with an red wax rind

Aroma: none to speak of

Taste: salty and mild, similar to a very mild cheddar

Mouth feel: like a firm processed cheese

Notes: Another Dutch cheese for this week! While Edam is historically a famous cheese, the domestic brand didn't impress me that much. It tasted like a very salty cheddar, and the texture was oily and waxy, like a processed cheese. I appreciate the fact that this cheese will last YEARS without refrigeration. But I've tasted much better cheese.

Libation of the WEEK: Youngberry Juice

Name: Youngberry Juice

Brand: Ceres

Place of Purchase: Cub Foods, Ames, Iowa

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Country/Region of Origin: The Ceres Valley in South Africa.

Tasting Conditions: Chilled, with whisky stones.

Price in Iowa: $4.99

Description: A burgundy-red juice.

Flavor: Different than blackberries (not as sweet). Not as tart as raspberries. Floral and coppery flavors.

Mouth-feel: More of a nectar than a juice. A thicker, more luxurious texture.

Aroma: Flowery, with deep meaty (like a beefsteak tomato) notes

Notes: Unfortunately, I can not find fresh fruit to save my life. My neice, who lives in Hawaii, was supposed to bring me something, but I haven't seen her yet. Hopefully, that will pan out. Otherwise, I'll send her back with money and have her ship something to me. Until then, we're stuck with my limited fruit juice options. If I can't get something new in three weeks, I'm moving on to booze, again.

Youngberries (Rubus ursinus cv. Young) are a cross between blackberries and dewberries (which are blackberries country cousins). This hybrid was created in the early 1900s in order to make a hardier blackberry. The result is a fruit with a mild sweetness and the complex flavor profile of the Rubus berries. It was an excellent libation after work.

Cheese of the week: Leerdammer

Name: Leerdammer

Place of Purchase: HyVee Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country of Origin: Holland

Price in Iowa: $14.99/lb

Milk: cow

Processing: swiss-style with only 4 weeks of aging

Texture: semi-hard

Color: pale cream with big holes

Rind: natural, washed rind

Aroma: Sharp, dairy

Taste: Sweet, warm umami, nutty, tart/acidic in the background

Mouth feel: firm and rich

Notes:This cheese probably needs to be paired with chocolate or fruit. The sweetness comes through with the initial flavor, followed by a nutty/meaty taste. But the tartness in the background moves quickly to overpower any other flavors in the cheese. Fruits and chocolate enhanced the sweet and umami notes, and rounded the cheese out very well. This is a nice cheese from the Dutch, but keep in mind that it was crafted to be a sweet, CHEAP, swiss-style cheese. It's good, but not as complex as other swiss-style, washed-rind cheeses.

Fruit of the Week: Acai berries

Name: Acai Berries (frozen puree)

Brand: Sambazon

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Brasil

Price in Iowa: $6.99 for 14 oz.

Description: Indigo lint, frozen

Flavor: Woody and astringent.

Aroma: A flowery/rosy aroma.

Texture/Mouth-feel: It's probably not a fair assessment to judge texture based off of a frozen puree.

Notes: It's early January here in Iowa, and I looked all over town for new fresh fruits to try. Not a one. So, I started looking at juices (look for Libations of the Week until I can find some fresh fruit) and frozen fruits. I came across these acai puree packets for smoothie making. The flavor left a lot to be desired, but I used the broken puree-cicles as ice cubes in my iced tea, and they added a slight flowery tang to my tea. Just like the goji berries from last week, the reason to eat this fruit is for health. Freeze-dried acai has an ORAC value (Oxygen radical absorbance capacity) of over 100,000 (http://oracvalues.com). Goji berries only have an ORAC of 23,000. However, these values are misleading. There are a number of oxygen radicals in your body, all doing damage and aging you slowly, but acai does not reduce all of them. There is good evidence that acai has anti-inflammatory properties, but whether eating a tablespoon of this stuff a day is any better than drinking a (much cheaper) glass of wine or concord grape juice is up for debate. My suggesting is stick to whole foods (sure, frozen purees count) and avoid pills. The fruit will always outperform the extract.