If you're a fan of the Walnut Creek Cheese house and you enjoy their aged cheeses from the cheese caves, I have good news and bad news for you. As we know, but our newly found friendly readers may not, is that The Walnut Creek Cheese Cave is a special refrigerated area behind swiftly
automated doors that keep the cave delightfully chilled as it houses
their own aged cheddar cheeses as well as imported cheeses from around
the world. Let's address the bad news first and rejoice in the happy news later.
The Bad News - The 6 and 7 year aged cheddar are bunk. It reeks of ammonia and you come out feeling like you've been ripped off.
The Good News - The 5 year Cheddar rocked my socks off. It also rocked many of my opinionated friend's socks off. To illustrate how opinionated one of my friends tends to be, after tasting my Mother's homegrown tomatoes, he tasted fresh cut grass and accused her of mulching her tomatoes with grass clippings. He was correct. Mom never mulched her veggies with grass clippings again.
The lightly bittered hint of skunk and cheddar in the 5 year aged cheddar along with the crispy delight of crushing those divine crystals between your teeth is such an earned delight. It's like hitting the sweet spot on the tennis racket or whacking the perfect drive and knowing where it lands before it does. Those crystals are a reward to the loving cheese quester.
Here's a little bit of bad news I haven't warned you about. The 5 year has been sold out since this spring. I pray they have some ready this year.... We shall see (And I shall report).
In the interim, they have an amazing standby in the cheese section outside the cave. It is called "Grand Cheddar" (aged over 3 years). This cheese is Delicious!!! While in a few ounces I've only found 1 crunchy crystal, it's still not too shabby and should be gobbled up before you waste your time on those yucky orange sharp cheddar decoys.
Enjoy My Friends, Enjoy. :)
