We sampled three cheeses from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm, of Lyme, CT:
- Pleasant Valley sheep's milk cheese
- Pleasant Cow, made from Jersey cow milk
- Nehantic Abbey, an aged cow's milk sheese
We all found the Pleasant Valley to be pleasant indeed, very delicate and not at all sheepy, but in the end it was a good nibbling cheese, not a revelation. Of course, you don't expect every cheese to be a revelation, but it happens often anough that you just can't help hoping the next one might make you smile.
The Pleasant Cow we all liked better, and some of us liked best. Still not a five-star cheese, but a very good one with a sense of coastal Connecticut terroir.
Both of those cheeses are aged 60 days or more, but the Nehantic Abbey gets 6 months. That was my favorite of the lot, but I was alone in that opinion. It is sharper and tangier, and it doesn't necessarily play well with many foods, but I thought it went very well with a Berkshire Brewing Company Coffee Porter.
These cheeses are hard to find very far beyond their home in Lyme, CT. I got them at a market in Haddam, CT just before the bridge to East Haddam and the Goodspeed Opera House.
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