Trader Joe's has discontinued three of my all-time favorite white cheddars: Canadian Extra Sharp, Mull of Kintyre Scottish, and Lite Sharp Celtic. This is extremely annoying, but there's not much I can do about it other than keep looking for a new favorite.
I think I've found it. Maybe not quite a favorite in the same way as the others, but at least a new default choice--one that's good enough that I'm not constantly reminded of its inferiority. This is a straightforward, high-quality, no-surprises, no-disappointment white cheddar. It doesn't make me crave more and more of it the way my former three favorites could, but I'm sufficiently content eating it.
This realization gave me a dilemma. You see, a year ago I had rated the seemingly very similar Wisconsin Extra Sharp as just so-so. How could I explain this discrepancy?
So I bought a block of each and tried them side by side. I concluded that my original rating of the Wisconsin Extra Sharp was unfair. Maybe I was in a bad mood that week, or maybe it suffered somewhat by comparison to a recent memory of one of my favorites, and I was overly dismissive as a result of that. But I now find it so close to the Wisconsin Sharp that I would never be able to distinguish them if not for simultaneous tasting. The Wisconsin Extra Sharp has just a tad more edge to it than the Wisconsin Sharp, and I have a slight preference for the latter. But if you put one of them in front of me with no label and without the other for comparison, I could do no more than randomly guess which it was.
Will I buy it again?
Yes. It has become my mainstay cheddar. Now I need to try it side-by-side with my other second-tier choice, the New Zealand Grass-Fed Sharp. If I get around to that test, I'll append a note here about it.
I guess I'm still technically rating the Wisconsin Extra Sharp as a "no," because now I'll choose this one in preference to it--but it's very close, and if I ever go for this one and find that it's out of stock, I'll take its near relative instead and not feel cheated.
Do you like this one better than the “unexpected cheddar” as a snacking cheese...? With the holidaze coming up i often get TJs cheeses for everyone else (and a fancy vegan nut cheese for myself) the cheddar always seems nice to serve with some tart apple slices
ReplyDeleteTtrockwood
I know that the Unexpected is very popular, but I can't figure out why. I found nothing special about it, and it was way too crumbly. Nina agreed. https://exploringtraderjoes.blogspot.com/2014/11/trader-joes-unexpected-cheddar-cheese.html
Deletetry the "English Coastal Cheddar" much better. Its too bad they can't find a better Wisconsin cheddar, they make good ones there ...
ReplyDeleteI got the Trader Joe's Wisconsin extra sharp cheese, and it is so good! There's a difference about it from other cheeses that I've had. I will be driving back to get more.!
ReplyDelete