Increase Your Cheese IQ | Vocabularly to Describe Your Cheese
Decipher your barnyardy from your yeasty.
If you’ve ever walked into a cheese shop and felt like the cheesemonger is speaking a different language, you’re not alone. But tasting cheese needn’t be an intimidating experience. Instead, have fun broadening your palate and enhancing your appreciation for gourmet flavours.
Below is a list of the most common adjectives used to describe the flavour and aroma of cheese, designed to provide you with fun vocabulary to describe and discuss cheese with your friends and family. It’s like a cheese-only dictionary, which is clearly far more interesting than any ordinary dictionary!
Nutty
Nut-like, most characteristic of Swiss-type cheeses.
Earthy
Reminiscent of mushrooms or soil, grass or the forest floor – goat’s cheese.
Floral
The scent of jasmine, lavender, etc. – Cheddar cheese.
Sweet
Tasting of sugar or honey – mascarpone.
Yeasty
The smell of a wine cellar and the aroma of baking bread – Président Camembert.
Barnyardy
Like walking into a barn filled with animals – aged goat’s cheese.
Fruity
Fragrant and sweet with pineapple notes – Baby Swiss, Aged Cheddars, Parmesan.
Sharp
A pungent, biting flavour, but not overpowering – gorgonzola.
Piquant
An assertive flavour or aroma, generally stronger than sharp – blue cheese.
Bloomy
Bloomy rind cheeses are generally creamy and buttery with a hint of sautéed white button mushroom – Président Camembert.
Creamy
A mild, milky taste and smooth texture – Président Double Brie.
Caramelised
A hint of caramelised onions in the background – Président Comté.
Maybe not so good:
- Bit melty
- Doritoesque
- Hard
- Smells funny
- Do I eat the skin?
Now all that’s left to do is throw a cheese-tasting party in celebration!