We weren’t sure it was possible for cheese to be any more addictive than well-aged cheeses like Flory’s Truckle or Hardware. And then we tasted Ron Lubsen’s 30 month gouda- an alchemical feat of cheese wizardry seemingly combining cheese and butterscotch candy. You see, long-term enzymatic activity in aging cheese is not unlike caramelization, so it sort of make sense that a super-aged gouda (a washed curd style of cheese that prominently features its milk sugars) ends up tasting like cheese candy. And all of those clusters of crunchy, crunchy crystals? An amino acid called tyrosine from the breakdown of proteins!

Our favorite application: This is one of those super-aged, low-moisture cheeses that can hold up for days out of refrigeration, which makes a big hunk of it a clutch move for a trail snack or camping excursion.

Tastes like: Butterscotch hard candy, beef bone broth, scalded milk.

The Brass Tacks:

• Forx Farm - Anderson, SC

• Gouda

• Raw Cow

• Animal Rennet

• Milk Sourced from Nearby Farms

• Season: Year Round