On Friday, August 3rd, Beecher's received top awards at the American Cheese Society's 24th Annual Conference & Competition. The event, held in Burlington, Vermont, is the stomping ground for some of the most talented artisan cheesemakers in the country with the competition highlighting the best of the best in American artisan cheesemaking.
This year's event hosted thirty-two judges whose job was to grade the over 1,200 American artisan cheese entries, a 27% increase over last year's entries. All told, over 200 producers from 28 states and two Canadian provinces participated in the event.
When all were tasted and rated, Beecher's Handmade Cheese's Flagship Reserve came out on top. Given 1st place in the Aged Cheddar category, Reserve also walked away with 2nd place in the Best in Show category, coming in 2nd overall to a washed rind Raclette cheese from
Leelanau Cheese Company of Suttons Bay, Michigan.
"The Flagship Reserve is a special version of our signature
Flagship cheese," says Brad Sinko, cheesemaker. "We take particular care of it, starting only with curds from cheese-makes where the milk composition is just right."
"With Reserve, we use curds with a slightly lower moisture and higher salt content than Flagship, resulting in a richer taste and texture while maintaining a clean,
creamy finish."
In addition to using this special raw material, Flagship
Reserve is traditionally cloth-bound and open-air aged. During the affinage process, each
truckle is hand-turned and rubbed with butter on a daily
basis during the first two months of aging, three times a
week for the following two months and then once per
week through the remainder of the aging process.
Flagship Reserve is currently available on a limited basis at our Beecher's shop in the Pike Place Market. For more information, call (206) 956-1964.
For more information about the conference, competition, and judging, visit www.cheesesociety.org.
For a listing of all awards won by Beecher's Handmade Cheese, visit our Awards page.
