Trader Joe's Aged Mahon Cheese

We have arrived at the end of Dairy Week, Day 7. Hope you have enjoyed it! 



I had never heard of Mahon cheese until the day I browsed Trader Joe's cheese section looking for something interesting to try. Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

Mahón cheese is a soft to hard white cheese made from cow's milk, named after the natural port of Mahón on the island of Minorca off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Minorca is known for its cheese production and is home to one of the most respected dairy plants in Europe.... Mahón has some characteristics specific to it, despite aging. In general the cheese is buttery sharp, slightly salty and lightly aromatic (sweet and nutty aromas) in taste. Mahón's sweet and fruity but at times slightly salty taste is due in part to the sea salt content in the grasses the cows eat. The rind is generally an orange color due to the rind being rubbed with butter, or oil, and paprika. As it reaches maturity (around 10 months) it tends to have small misshapen holes and has some granularity. In general, all aged Mahón has a proliferation of tiny holes.

That seems to be a good description--probably better than I could come up with after eating this. It seemed most like a extra-sharp white cheddar, rich and buttery. I liked it a lot. My only gripe was that it was somewhat dry and crumbly, making it hard to slice cleanly.

Will I buy it again? 

I look forward to it, though there are many, many more that I need to explore before I get back to it.

Nina's View

This is very tasty stuff. If I were still buying solidified cow suffering, I would buy this.