Hold onto your faces: Midnight Moon cheese is lick-your-cutting-board delicious.
On Saturday we visited Fromage to try yet another cheese. We asked our server what her favorite was and she pointed us in the direction of Midnight Moon.
Midnight Moon is a hard aged goat cheese and, while the official website of the cheesemaker (Cypress Grove) does not explicitly say it, I’m pretty certain that prior to being milked each goat is dipped by a cherub into a pool of shimmering dew collected from the mountains of Valhalla.
Midnight Moon headquarters is based out of Humboldt county California, but unexpectedly this cheese is made in Holland and then provided exclusively to the cheesemaker Cypress Grove Chevre. I’m not sure how this business arrangement works, but it doesn’t matter; the cheese is ambrosial.
With stark contrast between the shadowy casing and the brilliant white flesh, Midnight Moon almost looks like it was inked in a graphic novel. The texture is a buttery creamy softness and the taste is quiet and comforting. The cheesemaker reports flavorful undertones of nuts and caramel, but I won’t pretend that my unschooled pallet can find these flavors without cliff’s notes.
Midnight Moon won third place in the 2014 World Champion Cheese for Hard Aged Goat Cheese and I completely understand why. This cheese is my favorite so far from the Cheese Files. Shockingly, it’s not the highest rated cheese from Cypress Grove! Their website describes another cheese, The Humbert Fog, as their flagship cheese. We will make sure to try this in the coming weeks.
Taste: 4/4
Price: $$ (25/lb)
Independence: High
Verdict: Buy this cheese.