Day One Fifty Six - Cheese Spy Stories - Dispatch # 5 - Coming at you from Down Under...

I can just hear the Men at Work song playing in the background, "I Come From a Land Down Under," as I dispatch our next cheese spy stories to you all, coming at you from Australia.

Although I too have traveled to Australia and most certainly want to go back, I do not remember any particularly spectacular cheeses that I sampled while there. I certainly fell in love with Vegemite and the freshness of their seafood. Nowadays when I think of Australian cheese, I think of one particular blue cheese known as Roaring Forties Blue. A Semi-soft cow's milk blue cheese covered in wax made by King's Island Dairy, based on an island north of Tasmania. The cheese takes its name from the up to 100 kms per hour winds that this island, located at 40 degrees latitude, experiences. The cheese itself is sweet, savory, not too piquant, and a fantastic beginners blue. Apart from this cheese, there are one hundred different varieties of cheese produced in Australia, would you ever think that Australia could be a cheese destination? Well now you can!

I'm getting carried away here, this post is not meant to be about my memories and loves of Australia, it is coming right at you from this week's cheese spy, so get ready!

This was our cheese spy's first trip to Australia and just like you and I, certainly did not think that Australia was known for cheese production, boy were we all wrong! Our reliable spy actually found something quite interesting in terms of a favorite Australian produced cheese, what was that? Well folks, it was Manchego cheese. I am sure you are thinking, Manchego in Australia? Isn't that made in Spain traditionally?? Nope, you can also find an Australian Manchego... As we know, Manchego is the classic Spanish sheep's milk cheese traditionally produced in Spain's La Mancha region... But the residents of Kangaroo Island adopted the Spanish ways and began producing the cheese. The “Island Pure” Manchego, as it is called, is not simply a replica of its Spanish ancestor. The Australian version has a more mellow taste than that of Spain, but they do share a similar texture are both relatively hard cheeses. This sheep’s milk cheese is great on crackers and was surprisingly less dry than the Spanish version.


So folks, do not doubt that you will find cheese in almost every corner of the world and sometimes that cheese will mirror a cheese you know and love and you will determine that actually the cheese you discovered in this far off land is better than your tried and true version.

Thank you to this week's spy and check back next week for another Cheese Spy Stories Dispatch.