Cheesy Christmas 15: Chèvre Cranberry

We were really looking forward to this cheese for a couple of reasons:

#1… we really like goat cheese, as you’ve come to know.
#2… Cranberries… need I say more?

Let’s talk about cranberry goat cheese…

Reminder / Disclaimer

Just a reminder that for days 11-16, as I mentioned on Day 11, while the posts appear in order on the blog there was actually an interruption for a couple of days. Today’s cheese was tasted on day 16, and I’m posting about it a couple of days after that to get caught up.

A couple things are kind of comical about this cheese and the pairing up with cranberry:

Reason #1: There’s sort of a running joke here, thanks to a little Canadian-themed restaurant in town. You’d think, looking at their menu, that all Canadians eat are cranberries and maple syrup. Why? Because they add one or the other to so. many. things. on their menu. Yes, we do love cranberries… but I’m not sure that it’s particularly Canadian.

Reason #2: The word itself… “Cranberry”, that’s literally the word that French people use to describe this little fruit. Back in Canada there are a couple of French words that we’d use: “canneberge” and “airelle”, here in France however… they use the English word of all things.

I find that funny.

Day #15: Bûche Chèvre Frais Cranberry

Name: Bûche Chèvre Frais Cranberry
Bûche simply refers to its shape… a log, similar to how one of the main Christmas desserts here is a “Bûche de Noël” (a Christmas log or a yule log). So, it’s a log of fresh goat cheese with cranberries – simple!
Region: Indre
This is the second goat cheese we’ve had from the Indre department, the first being the Olivet aux foins from Day 5. It’s so close to us, yet I wasn’t aware that it was such a goat cheese area.
Milk: Pasteurized Goat’s milk
Our Score: 3.4/5
Oh dear… while this one was better than some of the other ones that we tasted on our mini-tray, considering that (a) it was goat cheese (which we love) and (b) made with cranberries (which we also love), I would’ve thought it’d have done better. The reason is likely this: While it was delightfully creamy, and melted in our mouths, it had a strong yeast-like taste… very strange.