Vieux Chimay Aged Hard Cheese

This is day 10 of our extended New Products Week. 


As with yesterday's review of the jicama sticks, this one is better described as newish than new. Specifically, Trader Joe's rolled it out in November. See their product introduction here.

Given who makes this cheese, I cannot resist making a joke:

Q: What did Admiral Ackbar say when he met a Benetictine monk?

A: It's a Trappist!

Thank you, thank you. My stand-up comedy tour will be coming to your hometown soon.

Anyway, to the cheese. I really had no idea what to expect of it. When I see an orange cheese, I tend to just assume it will be cheddar-like. This definitely isn't--though I'm hard-pressed to tell you what other cheeses it's most like.

The most striking quality of the flavor is the butteriness. In fact, I think it's the most intensely buttery cheese I've ever had. Trader Joe's could have called this "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter," if they didn't mind having a second trademark-infringement lawsuit on their hands.

Its texture is perfect for slicing--firm enough to cut easily, but not so hard as to crumble, even when sliced thinly.

I liked it a lot. It's one of my favorite cheeses from Trader Joe's (even though it doesn't carry the store brand name).


Will I buy it again? 

As always with TJ's cheeses, there are so many I want to try that it's likely to be years before I get through them all and go back for seconds on the ones I liked best. But if and when I do, this one will definitely be on the list.