Trader Joe’s is famous for its cheese selection, but which ones are actually worth buying? Cheese expert Liz Thorpe joins Epicurious to taste test everything from classic Brie and sharp cheddar to more adventurous flavors like chocolate stilton and spicy scotch bonnet. Join Liz as she breaks down the best buys, hidden gems, and which cheeses to skip on your next Trader Joe’s run.
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00:00Trader Joe's is famous for its cheese section.
00:02It's got cult classics, budget breeze,
00:05and some seriously weird wild cards.
00:08I've been dreading this cheese all day.
00:11But which of these deserve the hype,
00:12and which of them are just fancy packaging?
00:15I'm cheese expert Liz Thorpe,
00:16and today I'm gonna be trying them all.
00:19This is the ultimate Trader Joe's cheese taste test.
00:23We'll start with elevated snacking cheeses.
00:26Higher quality cheeses to grab from the fridge
00:29or nosh on the go.
00:30Creamy Toscano soaked in Syrah.
00:33This for me is one of the Trader Joe's cult classics.
00:36This is a firm Italian style cheese soaked in red wine.
00:42This is an homage to a very classic traditional style
00:46of cheese made in Italy called ubriaco cheeses.
00:49That means drunken cheese.
00:51And the cheese essentially bathes in the wine
00:54and also sometimes will even pierce holes in the cheese
00:57and the wine flavors will permeate
00:59into the center of the cheese.
01:01This has been rubbed and soaked with a wine mixture.
01:05No holes have been pierced.
01:07The flavor is only on the rind.
01:11It's like a creamy buttery Parmesan.
01:14But as you move closer to the outside of the cheese,
01:19really discernible notes from the red wine.
01:22It's fruity, but it's not sweet.
01:24So Trader Joe's doesn't make any cheese.
01:27They go out and they find the best selling,
01:29sort of fundamental foundational flavors and styles.
01:32And then they find cheesemakers who will make those cheeses
01:35under their own brand.
01:36If I'm gonna eat a flavored cheese,
01:38this is the kind of flavored cheese I'm gonna reach for.
01:41Unexpected cheddar.
01:43So this is a cheddar,
01:45but it's described as having flavors like a Parmesan.
01:49The way that you do this is by adding
01:52a very specific kind of bacteria to the milk
01:55during the beginning of the cheesemaking process.
01:58It's called an adjunct culture.
02:00And it breaks down the fats and proteins in such a way
02:04that it releases flavor compounds that we read as nutty.
02:09So that's really where they're getting
02:10that Parmesan-y quality from.
02:13There's this sort of fine white grit
02:16on the outside of the cheese.
02:18It's calcium lactate crystals.
02:21Simply something that happens over time.
02:23And it's something you'll see on the exterior cut surface
02:27of block cheddar.
02:30Hmm.
02:31This feels like an aged block cheddar.
02:34It's dense.
02:35It's kind of crumbly in the mouth,
02:37mouth-watery finish, sharpness.
02:40But underneath it all are those nutty,
02:42savory Parmesan flavors.
02:44It does not surprise me that this has won Trader Joe's
02:47Customer Choice Award for seven straight years.
02:52New Zealand Sharp Cheddar.
02:54This is six to 12 months old.
02:57What you cannot ignore about this cheese right off the bat
02:59is that it is bright yellow.
03:01Because it is made of grass-fed cow's milk,
03:04the beta-carotene in the grass passes through their milk
03:08and comes out in the cheese and makes yellower cheese.
03:12That does not happen with goats, which is why goat's milk
03:14is very white.
03:16Hmm.
03:18It's described as sharp cheddar.
03:20So I'm from New England.
03:22To me, sharp cheddar means like I take a bite
03:24and my mouth is really, really watering,
03:26kind of explodes with acidity.
03:28This is spritzing of acidity.
03:31Texturally and flavor-wise, it does not feel like it is aged
03:34for six to 12 months.
03:36The grass-fed milk is not really driving the flavor here.
03:39It's too big a production.
03:41It's not a small enough, handcrafted enough cheese
03:43to really be feeling the impact of where the cheese is made.
03:49Goat milk cheddar style.
03:51So here we have another famous cheese, cheddar,
03:54that is usually typically traditionally made of cow milk.
03:57Here we've got it made of goat milk.
03:59The label describes it as soft and creamy,
04:02which is not really a description I would give
04:04of most cheddars I've had.
04:06And it is pretty soft.
04:10I find goat milk, when it's made into an aged style of cheese,
04:13can have kind of like a powdery smell.
04:18Sadly, it sort of tastes a bit like baby powder.
04:21It's really just got a like not great texture.
04:24What I love about aged goat cheeses
04:26is that they can turn a goat milk hater around.
04:29They can have that kind of caramely sweetness.
04:31And this doesn't really have that.
04:33It just tastes kind of flat.
04:35This is not my favorite goat cheddar.
04:37Toscano with black pepper.
04:40We've got a fully formed, fully aged cheese on its own.
04:44And then we have these different flavorings
04:46that are added to the rind.
04:48Very finely ground black pepper.
04:50So generally when they're doing these kinds of flavor additions
04:53to the rind of the cheese,
04:55they're making kind of like a paste.
04:57Finely ground pepper and some sort of fat or oil,
05:00so it will adhere to the exterior of the cheese.
05:04This tastes like a really good American Parmesan.
05:07Definitely not crystal-y and crunchy like the Italian Parmigiano Reggiano,
05:11but sweet and nutty and really approachable and crowd friendly.
05:16You don't really get any essence of pepper at all.
05:19And I think in order to get any impact from the pepper,
05:23you're going to have to eat the rind.
05:25Normally you wouldn't eat the rind on a hard cheese,
05:27but here it's really been coated in the pepper,
05:30I think, for your eating pleasure.
05:33It's more like a white pepper.
05:35It's not really spicy.
05:36It's like sort of a softer heat.
05:38But you're only ever getting that flavor
05:39when you eat the rind of the cheese.
05:41The rest of the time you're basically getting American-made Parmesan.
05:44So I can see how that would irritate some people.
05:48Next up, shredders and melters.
05:51These are great for grilled cheese and melting into sauces.
05:54Fontina.
05:56This is traditionally an Italian cheese.
05:59Don't know where Trader Joe's is made, but I'm guessing not Italy.
06:04It doesn't taste like much.
06:05I think I would probably call it bland.
06:07When I look at this, I have to compare it to introductory level fontinas,
06:11and they're all going to be this kind of buttery, mild cheese.
06:15I give props for texture.
06:17This is not gummy and it's not plasticky.
06:20And those are the two biggest flaws with most fontina on the market.
06:23So this fontina has a waxed rind and some fontinas do and some do not.
06:28But that wax is there to retain moisture and really help this cheese
06:33maintain its core identity as a pliable, moist, great melting cheese.
06:39Red wax is most commonly used for Dutch gouda.
06:43This fontina will do exactly the same thing as a red wax gouda.
06:47People might buy it because of the appearance rather than the name.
06:51Creamy Havarti.
06:53Havarti is the most famous cheese made in the country of Denmark,
06:56but it's now made all over the United States and in other European countries as well.
07:02It is what's called a washed curd cheese.
07:06They drain out the whey, which is quite acidic, and they add hot water.
07:10And that bathing of the curds makes the cheese less acidic in flavor, milder or sweeter.
07:18It also contributes to the texture and the elasticity of the curd.
07:23So you get this like real bendy texture. It doesn't snap or break.
07:27In terms of this Havarti, I'm seeing little irregular, they almost look like pinpricks.
07:33And that's pretty typical for this cheese.
07:35It has to do with when the curds are being pressed together, little pockets of air get trapped.
07:42Unlike the fontina, the Havarti is really, really creamy.
07:47It's almost like eating a room temperature bite of butter.
07:52Compared to other Havartis out there, this one is very mild, a little bit salty.
07:56Many other Havartis I've had have a bit more tang to them,
08:00which I think makes them a little bit more interesting as an eating or a snacking cheese.
08:05This is really something I just want to melt, and I want to put a lot of stuff with,
08:09and I want to enjoy the texture.
08:11Double cream gouda.
08:13Technically, you would pronounce it gouda or gouda.
08:16Like all gouda, this one has a waxed rind, but it's this like thin spray wax.
08:22And it's kind of weird to me that the fontina has the traditional red wax,
08:27and then the gouda has something different.
08:29The texture of this one is much firmer than the Havarti.
08:34Still very creamy, but it breaks when I bend it.
08:38Even though it's firm on the bend, it's really, really creamy when you're eating it.
08:44This one is starting to have some of the flavors that you'll see in gouda as it ages over time
08:49that I love that I think make it a little bit more interesting.
08:52A hint of a caramelly note, very subtle kind of nutty flavors.
08:56Again, it doesn't have anything in the cheese, but just compared to the previous two cheeses,
09:01this one has some flavor complexity.
09:04This is called double cream gouda cheese.
09:06Typically in the world of cheese, double cream or double creme,
09:09cream is added to the milk to amp up the fat content.
09:13What's weird to me about this cheese is that this is called a double cream gouda,
09:17but there's no cream added to it.
09:19I'm not entirely sure what that refers to.
09:21Compared to the others in this section, the gouda is the best for a combo of flavor and texture.
09:27Cheddar and Gruyere Melange.
09:30This is combining cheddar cheese, which is usually sharp and not a very great melting cheese,
09:35with Gruyere, which is low in acidity, very nutty in flavor, and melts like a dream.
09:42You're not taking cheddar and Gruyere and like grinding them up and mixing them together.
09:47You're tweaking steps to achieve certain flavors and perhaps certain textural characteristics.
09:55It's more bendy than a cheddar, but not as bendy as a Gruyere.
09:58We're getting somewhere in the middle.
10:00Gruyere has an amazing, powerful, nutty aroma, and this does not really have that.
10:06It smells a little bit cheddar-y, I guess.
10:11I think the goal here is basically to give you a cheddar that's going to melt really well,
10:17but I want nutty flavors or sharpness, and I'm not really getting either one of those things.
10:24Compared to other blended recipes I've had, this one is underwhelming,
10:28but I bet it would melt really well.
10:30That said, I would just go melt Gruyere.
10:33Le Gruyere, more commonly known in the U.S. as Gruyere.
10:37It is always made of raw or unpasteurized cow milk.
10:40These are large format wheels, 80-pound wheels that are aged anywhere from 4 to 12 months.
10:48Looking at it, it looks kind of young to me.
10:50It is a cheese that gets washed a bit in salt water as it ages,
10:54and sometimes you'll see brown or orange kind of stickiness on the rind.
10:59When I don't see any action on the rind, it kind of makes me wonder what the cheese is going to taste like.
11:07This is a really great example of a kind of introductory Gruyere.
11:14It just tastes very young and very mild.
11:16The like beef bouillon, the savory notes, the oniony notes,
11:20these are all the things I look for in Gruyere, kind of expect in Gruyere.
11:24Not really happening here.
11:25My recommendation would be you buy your Gruyere elsewhere.
11:29Comte.
11:30If Gruyere is the poster child cheese of Switzerland,
11:35Comte is like the lesser known version of that cheese from France.
11:40I was mentioning with the Gruyere, the rind was kind of sanitized.
11:44This looks a little more like a rind.
11:46There is some surface mold. It's a little bit harder and sharper edged.
11:51These are cheeses that are, they're called natural rinded cheeses.
11:55They are aged in open air, temperature and humidity controlled rooms.
12:01And the rind develops naturally.
12:06It's okay. It's pretty mild.
12:08A good aged Comte at a specialty shop is probably going to be
12:12at least twice as expensive as what you would spend at Trader Joe's.
12:16I don't think this is going to give you the flavor experience that you want.
12:18So ultimately, if you want to branch out and try this,
12:21I think a specialty shop is worth the extra spend.
12:25Soft and spreadable cheeses.
12:27These are mild, creamy and great to use for cooking.
12:31Fresh mozzarella cheese log.
12:33What I want to see in a fresh mozzarella is bright white appearance,
12:37no spots of any color, and moisture.
12:41I want my mozzarellas to be sweet, creamy, with a good hit of salt.
12:46No rubbery texture, no gumminess.
12:50This is right on the mark.
12:51It's what's called a high moisture mozzarella.
12:54So it's packaged with some of the water in the plastic to keep it very creamy and not dry.
13:00This is comparable to Bell Joyoso or any other best-selling high moisture mozzarella brand.
13:04Fresh mozzarella cheese pearls.
13:08This is pearlini.
13:10Little pearls.
13:11The most classic and best-selling shape of little mozzarella balls.
13:16No smell.
13:17Exactly what I want to see with fresh mozzarella.
13:20These are really tasty.
13:22A little bounce, a little spring, but still creaminess.
13:25Compared to a ball or a log of mozzarella,
13:27the smaller size just makes them a little bit creamier in texture.
13:31Another great example of mozzarella,
13:32and honestly, probably a lot less expensive than the national best-selling brand.
13:38Marinated fresh mozzarella cheese.
13:41Unlike the pearls, they actually use a larger size mozzarella ball.
13:45And they're marinated with oil, garlic, herbs, and red pepper.
13:51I don't usually like pre-marinated mozzarella.
13:55The flavors tend to get kind of dull.
13:57The cheese can sit in the oil and get kind of slimy.
14:00But this is really good.
14:02The oil is nice and light.
14:03And impressively, they got the herb mix down pat.
14:06And the garlic flavor comes through really clearly.
14:09This is the most impressive mozzarella so far, in my opinion.
14:13Baratta.
14:15Regular mozzarella is what's called a pulled curd cheese.
14:19The curd is being dipped and stretched in hot water and formed into a ball or a log.
14:24In the case of baratta, they start with that same process.
14:27But they're going for a very, very thin, almost like sheet.
14:30It can then be filled with little chopped up bits of mozzarella and a good amount of cream.
14:36It's very decadent, very rich.
14:39Like all mozzarellas, bright white, no smell.
14:42But really, it's all about the texture on the inside.
14:44And this one's okay, but it tastes a little bit like cottage cheese.
14:50What I'm looking for in a baratta is a center that's really sort of silky, liquidy, creamy.
14:57The center of this one's a little bit more mealy.
15:00By making a baratta that has more of kind of like a chunky, solid interior and less of a liquidy interior,
15:07you're really making a cheese that's going to have longer shelf life.
15:11The really, really authentic barattas are super perishable cheeses.
15:15And I understand that that doesn't make a lot of sense for a store like Trader Joe's.
15:18Definitely worth trying, but I would say not my favorite baratta.
15:23Mascarpone.
15:24Mascarpone is basically the milk and the cream are brought together.
15:30They coagulate and you got to get rid of the liquid.
15:33You're left with this rich, fluffy mass of milk solids.
15:39Mascarpone is so thick, it's like sticks to the roof of your mouth.
15:44This one is really good.
15:45Texturally, it doesn't have any graininess.
15:48And it's got that foundation of sweetness.
15:51I really like it in dessert applications and I really like it in lieu of cream in pasta dishes.
15:57This is a great mascarpone.
15:59Not an easy cheese to find, so now's your chance to try it.
16:03Traditional whole milk ricotta cheese.
16:06Fresh cheeses are about the texture, the creaminess, the sweetness of the fresh milk.
16:12This is not a place to skimp on fat.
16:14When I'm buying ricotta, I want to hear whole milk ricotta.
16:18I'm hoping that this is going to be as creamy, sweet and fluffy as it appears.
16:26Bummer.
16:27This is really grainy.
16:28The best ricottas are like perfect, moist little curds and they don't have any graininess.
16:35It's a shame because the flavor is really great.
16:38This has that wonderful, recooked, sweet flavor.
16:42But it's kind of a bummer that the texture is so grainy.
16:44It does have some milk and it uses vinegar.
16:47And I think that the grainy texture is coming from the use of the vinegar.
16:52And honestly, the reliance on whey, which is the traditional ingredient.
16:56But here, I think it's just been cooked a little too hard.
16:59And you get that granulated texture that I really don't want in my ricotta.
17:03Part skim ricotta cheese.
17:06This is ricotta made with partially skimmed milk.
17:10Usually a red flag for me.
17:11I'm looking for whole milk ricotta for that creamier texture.
17:19And this is really grainy.
17:20It's kind of like paste.
17:21The flavor is really nice.
17:23It's sweet.
17:23The fat content is not markedly less.
17:26So if you're reaching for skim ricotta because you want something that's lower in fat,
17:30it's about 6% less in fat.
17:33It's not a huge difference.
17:35Go for the Trader Joe's whole milk ricotta.
17:38Or even look for some other national brands.
17:41Calabro is my personal favorite.
17:43Chevre.
17:45We've got another white cheese with no rind.
17:48The big difference here is that Chevre is made of goat milk.
17:52There are flavors of goat milk that are going to be tartar, tangier, more lemony,
17:57and different from cow's milk.
17:58So not as sweet.
18:02So right off the bat, it smells different.
18:04It smells more like yogurt.
18:09This is very creamy.
18:10It's almost like clay.
18:12It's very mouth coating.
18:14These are very high moisture cheeses.
18:15They've got a lot of water in them.
18:18And that kind of reads in your mouth as smearable, spreadable creaminess.
18:24This one also has really good salt.
18:26A lot of fresh goat cheeses are kind of under salted.
18:29And they taste kind of like lemony and flat.
18:32This one's got really good salt to support the acidity.
18:35So I'm no doctor.
18:37But a lot of people talk about being lactose intolerant.
18:41And actually, what I find is that there are many people who have trouble digesting cow's milk cheeses.
18:46Their molecular structure can be harder for our bodies to digest.
18:50A lot of people have no trouble eating goat or sheep milk cheeses.
18:54They're easier for your body to break down and digest.
18:56So your issues with cheese may not be a lactose thing.
18:59They may be a cow's milk thing.
19:01This is a great introduction to fresh goat cheese.
19:04Chevre with honey.
19:06So typically, when you make a flavor-infused goat cheese,
19:10you make your fresh cheese and then you add the honey afterwards
19:13and sort of combine it into the cheese before you pipe it out into these little logs.
19:19Wow, you got a hit of sweetness up front.
19:22It doesn't read as honey.
19:23It just tastes kind of sugary up front.
19:26And then it fades away.
19:27It's pretty subtle.
19:28If you're someone who's buying goat cheese with honey in it,
19:30you want that honey flavor.
19:32And this is a little timid.
19:34I wouldn't say it's bad.
19:35It's just not what I think people are looking for when they buy a flavored goat cheese.
19:41Chevre with fine herbs.
19:44Smells really strongly of tarragon.
19:47Usually parsley and basil are the lead herbs here.
19:51This is like an explosion of herb flavor.
19:54The flavor of this goat cheese is present, which I like.
19:58But then on top of it, chervil and tarragon and those flavors are coming through really,
20:03really strongly.
20:04This one really tastes fresh and bright and strong.
20:08This may not be a perfect little log, but that's because it's moist and creamy.
20:12If it were dry and crumbly, it would hold its shape perfectly.
20:15I'd rather have a cheese that's very spreadable, very luxurious in texture.
20:20And this one is excellent.
20:21Crumbled goat cheese.
20:23I feel you can buy a log of goat cheese and crumble it yourself with a fork.
20:27And you're probably going to wind up with a creamier, fresher tasting goat
20:31cheese than if you buy it pre-crumbled.
20:33You've got these little distinctive clusters.
20:36It's much drier than the goat cheese that we were looking at in a log form.
20:43Impressively, when you eat it, it retains a good amount of creaminess.
20:49It does taste a little bit less balanced, kind of sharp edged, a little bit too acidic.
20:55The thing I really don't like about crumbled goat cheese is that
20:59all the crumbled goat cheeses out there include cellulose.
21:02It's an anti-caking agent. It's added so that the clumps don't all stick together.
21:07But I find that it gives kind of like a powdery finish to the cheese.
21:12In general, the quality of the cheese that's used to make a pre-crumbled product
21:17is just not as high as the quality of the cheese that's sold in a wedge or a log or a wheel.
21:24To make a crumbled cheese, they're going to start with a cheese that is lower in moisture.
21:30And or the cheese has more acidity to make a cheese that's more breakable in texture.
21:35Do the crumble yourself. You'll wind up with a better cheese.
21:38Feta. Traditionally, feta is made in grease out of goat and sheep milk.
21:43That being said, we are tasting cow milk feta.
21:47The way you make feta is that you pickle it.
21:49You take a fresh cheese and it is immersed in salt water for days or weeks or even months.
21:55So it's going to be wet and have a saltier flavor.
22:01Here's what's good about this.
22:03Many cow milk fetas are very bland and very salty.
22:08This has some balance to it. It's got a strong brininess.
22:11It's not overwhelming.
22:13And it's also got a pretty good moisture to the texture.
22:17A lot of cow milk fetas are very dry and crumbly.
22:20They don't have the added fat that sheep milk has.
22:24So you wind up with this sort of mealier, drier, textured, very salty cheese.
22:30But it's cheaper.
22:31This manages to still have some creaminess and some moisture.
22:34And it's not overwhelmingly salty.
22:37So on the whole, this is a pretty darn good cow's milk feta.
22:41Fancy imports.
22:43These are traditional cheeses with a strong regional identity.
22:47Double cream brie.
22:48All brie is going to have a white edible rind that is made of a mold called Penicillium Candidum.
22:55That's where the rind comes from.
22:58You can see it's actually papery in texture or a little bit fluffy on the outside.
23:05Smells a little bit moldy because it's covered in molds.
23:10This brie suffers from what many domestic bries suffer from, which is a chewy rind.
23:15The rind on your brie should be soft and skin-like.
23:18It should be a cohesive part of the cheese.
23:20You do not want it to be crunchy, snappy, or chewy.
23:24And this is kind of snappy, like a sausage skin on the outside of the cheese.
23:28But all the things I'm describing are very, very typical.
23:31So if you think about national best-selling brands, this would be very comparable to that.
23:37Fromage pavé.
23:38Fromage pavé literally means cheese brick.
23:42It's Trader Joe's French triple creme cheese.
23:46The triple cream style is a brie-style cheese that's had cream added to it to increase the butterfat content.
23:53It's called a bloomy rind.
23:54So that white edible rind is made of mold.
23:58It will contribute mushroomy aromas to the cheese.
24:02It's really luscious, really spreadable.
24:05That molded rind is actually breaking down the cheese over time.
24:09So the textural breakdown that's happening here, right under the rind,
24:13is where we're going to have the most concentrated flavor.
24:18Again, it doesn't have a really strong smell, and you don't want it to.
24:21If these cheeses smell really strongly of ammonia, they're overripe,
24:26and they're going to taste really bitter, and they're not going to be good.
24:31It's just like eating whipped butter, and I see nothing wrong with that.
24:34The other thing I really, really like about this cheese is the rind.
24:38The rind is soft, it's cohesive, it's part of the cheese.
24:41I don't know why one would choose the brie over this.
24:44Goat's milk gouda-style cheese.
24:47This is made in Holland.
24:50It is a gouda recipe, but instead of using cow's milk, they use goat milk.
24:54You can see that the cheese is really, really white.
24:57It has to do with the way goats process beta-carotene.
25:00Beta-carotene is what makes cheese look yellow.
25:03We've got that great gouda bend, but here we finally have a cheese that has some aroma.
25:10It smells kind of like dulce de leche.
25:14Beautiful, deep, dense, buttery texture, and it's got that awesome goat gouda flavor.
25:19For people who've only had cow milk gouda,
25:21this is going to be noticeably sweeter, caramely, toffee.
25:26People out there who hate goat cheese, when you get into the world of goat gouda,
25:30it's totally different, and it's a cheese that can really change your mind
25:34about what goat's milk can taste like.
25:37Manchego.
25:39Manchego is a name-protected cheese.
25:42It can only be made in the region of La Mancha, Spain.
25:46And from there, it can be aged anywhere from a couple of months to more than a year.
25:52It can be made of raw milk or pasteurized milk.
25:55So on the one hand, Manchego means something really specific.
25:59And on the other hand, there's a really broad spectrum of what you get when you get a Manchego.
26:04So this Hatchmark pattern is characteristic of Manchego.
26:09It actually is a throwback to the time when the cheese was drained in baskets that were made of reeds.
26:16Today, that is not how the cheese is ripened or aged.
26:20But the pattern is imprinted using plastic molds, and it harkens back to that original reed basket.
26:26You don't eat the rind. It is wax.
26:29The other thing, just to point out, is that it's gone greasy.
26:32This is a cheese made of sheep milk.
26:34Sheep milk is higher in fat than cow milk or goat milk.
26:38And at room temperature, that butter fat will start to leach out.
26:42So when you have a sheep milk cheese and it's greasy on the plate, that's totally normal.
26:49I will say it's not as concentrated a flavor as I was hoping for.
26:54But there's a reason why Manchego is very popular.
26:57It is a very approachable cheese.
26:59And I find it has flavors that are also reminiscent of, like, the mac and cheese powder.
27:04This has that inherent cheesy quality.
27:07There are many better Manchegos out there, but this is an excellent place to start.
27:12Mini Basque.
27:14This is another aged sheep milk cheese made in the French Pyrenees.
27:20Mini Basque is a larger production version of a really famous French cheese called Petite Basque.
27:26This is sort of an homage to that traditional cheese.
27:29It's just made on a larger scale and it's more readily available and less expensive.
27:34Like Manchego, it's going to have higher fat content.
27:38It's also got a wax rind and it's got kind of like a springier, semi-soft texture.
27:45This is a really easy eating cheese.
27:49The main thing I think of when I taste this cheese is coconut.
27:53It doesn't actually taste like eating a coconut, but the, like,
27:55fatty richness of coconut is what this cheese is all about.
28:00It, too, has some of those kind of mac and cheesy flavors.
28:03Everyone will like this cheese.
28:05It is one that I strongly encourage you to try if you haven't already had it,
28:09and if it's one you know to keep it on your regular rotation.
28:12Italian truffle cheese.
28:15Many people criticize truffle cheeses because they often rely on truffle oil for their flavor intensity.
28:22And I think some people feel like that makes it a fake cheese, like it's fake flavoring.
28:28But the truth of the matter is, if you were to just put truffle in the cheese, it wouldn't taste like anything.
28:34So without that oil, you're not going to get the aromatics that we're all looking for.
28:38Traditionally, they're made of sheep milk.
28:40And this is an Italian truffle cheese that is made of cow milk.
28:45The base cheese is going to be milder.
28:48And really, this is a cheese that's designed to just be about the flavor of the truffle.
28:53It's not whack you over the head truffley, which actually I'm kind of happy about.
28:58Because if it were, that would mean it was going to be just, like, greased up with truffle oil.
29:03It's definitely truffle. You can get the truffle really clearly.
29:09The cheese itself is kind of sour and kind of gummy in texture.
29:14I want the base cheese to be good before I layer in the flavor.
29:18I wish this were a more aged cheese with the same amount of truffle hit.
29:22Parmigiano-Reggiano-Stravecchio.
29:26Don't hate on me for my pronunciation.
29:28This is the king of cheese.
29:30This is Parmigiano-Reggiano.
29:32Stravecchio means extra-aged.
29:35This one is aged for three years.
29:38And it must, by Italian and EU law, be made of unpasteurized cow's milk.
29:44When you heat treat a milk and you pasteurize the milk,
29:46you kill any bacteria that are naturally present.
29:50And those bacteria contribute to the flavors and aromas of the cheese over time.
29:54You have more opportunity for complexity with a raw milk cheese
29:58than you may with a pasteurized milk cheese.
30:00I love that you can see these white patches.
30:04These are crystallized amino acids.
30:07You'll start to see them in cheese around 9 to 12 months of age.
30:10And they contribute a kind of crystal-y texture to the cheese.
30:14This is the strongest-smelling cheese that I've tasted yet today.
30:19When you have no water in the cheese, you get a lot of flavor and a lot of aroma.
30:25Toasted nuts, really toasty, toasty smells.
30:28Because this is so aged, it is very dry.
30:32It's very flaky.
30:35Really crunchy, like Pop Rocks.
30:37This is a really excellent Parmigiano-Reggiano.
30:40This manages to still have some creaminess.
30:43And instead of being dry, it's crunchy.
30:46It's crystallized.
30:47And that to me is like textural perfection.
30:50You can get Parmigiano-Reggiano pretty much everywhere now.
30:53And a lot of it is dried out and not great.
30:56So this is a surprisingly great Parmigiano-Reggiano.
30:59And I will be eating more of it.
31:02Thousand Day Gouda.
31:04People may not be as familiar with aged gouda.
31:06And it's a style that I really, really try to steer people to because it is extremely likable.
31:12The crystallization, those tyrosine crystals, form around 9 to 12 months of age.
31:19Here we've got three years of ripening.
31:21And they're even bigger here than they were in the Parmigiano-Reggiano.
31:25It's like every bite is full of crunch.
31:28Being a gouda, it's always going to have that waxed rind.
31:32The aroma of this cheese is also incredibly intense.
31:36It's caramelly.
31:37It's nutty.
31:38It makes me think of pecan pie.
31:42It's super crunchy.
31:43Very different from the Parm because it is much creamier.
31:46It's got really deep nuttiness.
31:49It's got vanilla.
31:50It's got caramel.
31:51Like everybody has to have this cheese.
31:53I really don't think there's a markedly better aged gouda out there.
31:57Cambazola.
31:58Camembert meets gorgonzola.
32:03Cambazola.
32:04It has a white molded rind like a camembert or a brie.
32:09And then it has blue mold on the inside like a gorgonzola.
32:15Texture, texture.
32:16It's all about the texture.
32:18Very, very buttery.
32:19The blue mold is definitely present.
32:21It contributes kind of bitter notes like bitter greens and also more mushroomy flavors to the cheese.
32:27For people who don't like blue cheese, you're probably not going to like this.
32:30For people who are interested in blue, this is a really great starter because it's not as salty,
32:36as peppery, or as overwhelming as other kinds of blue cheese.
32:40This is a very delicate cheese.
32:41And high turnover really helps with quality with this style of cheese.
32:47And one thing that I know Trader Joe's has is high turnover.
32:51So I do think that the quality that you can expect to get of the camembert is probably among the
32:56highest because they're cutting it and selling it and cutting it and selling it very quickly.
33:01Blue Stilton.
33:03Stilton is an English cow's milk blue cheese.
33:06It's got this crazy natural rind on the outside of the cheese.
33:11This is what happens when a cheese is aged in an open air environment.
33:16While the rind is really important, it's generally not that tasty to eat.
33:20So I'm going to cut the rind off.
33:23I mean, I know this is a blue cheese, but it smells like aged cheddar.
33:30That's really good.
33:31The way you make a blue cheese is that you add blue mold spores to the milk
33:35during the cheese making process, but that mold won't grow without air.
33:39So after the cheese is formed, the maker pierces holes in the rind of the cheese.
33:44Air gets into those holes and the mold starts to grow from the inside out.
33:49At the same time, they put a lot of salt on the outside of the cheese
33:52and the salt migrates in as the blue mold is growing out.
33:56And those things are happening simultaneously.
33:58So if you look at the blue molding in this cheese versus the cambozzola,
34:02cambozzola is like little pockmarks of blue.
34:05It's a very, very wet cheese.
34:08It's like a big, wet sponge.
34:10And so when they pierce holes in the cheese to let air in, to let the blue mold grow,
34:15the curd just kind of collapses.
34:17It can't hold itself up.
34:18So you don't ever have an opportunity for veining to develop.
34:22You just get these little pockets of blue.
34:25When you're working with a firmer, denser cheese like Stilton,
34:28when you pierce holes in the cheese, the holes remain.
34:31And you get these more even kind of cohesive mapping of blue veins that develop throughout
34:37the cheese.
34:38That also impacts the flavor.
34:40It's more kind of evenly distributed.
34:42It's not as intense because it spreads throughout the cheese.
34:45This is really fudgy and dense.
34:48It does have those fungal notes.
34:50And it does have some of those like fruity peppery notes of blue,
34:54but it's very balanced and it's got really good salt to kind of anchor it.
34:58I'm frankly surprised at how good this Stilton is.
35:02Party tricks.
35:03These are cheeses with wild flavors and classic mix-ins.
35:07White Stilton with apricots.
35:10So now we're into the world of Stilton that isn't blue cheese.
35:14White Stilton was created as a base cheese that different flavorings,
35:19specifically fruits, could be added to.
35:21This is a rindless, dense, firm cheese that is sort of,
35:27I guess I would call it a cheddar-ish base recipe, but it is not sharp like a cheddar.
35:32The flavor here is about the additive.
35:37It's not about the cheese.
35:39The cheese is milled, it's ground up, and the fruit is added to that mixture.
35:43So you're really getting all of the flavor here from the fruit.
35:47Additionally, yeah, I really get a sweetness as well.
35:53It's very typical that sugar will be added, in this case fructose.
35:57I'll be totally honest.
35:58I don't get the appeal of these cheeses, but people really love them.
36:02I don't feel like I'm eating a cheese.
36:03I feel like I'm eating some sort of cheesecake-y dessert situation.
36:07So I would say if that appeals to you, you can get some at Trader Joe's.
36:11Blueberry Vanilla Chef.
36:13So here we have a fresh goat cheese log that's been rolled in sweetened,
36:19dried blueberries and flavored with vanilla.
36:23The sweetness of the blueberry really, really counterbalances the tanginess in the goat cheese.
36:27I've only had a couple of versions of blueberry vanilla goat cheese.
36:34To my knowledge, there's really one major producer in the US who's making all the cheese
36:39for everybody who sells this style of cheese.
36:41This isn't my preferred style, but it is really good for what it is.
36:45It's very consistent with everything else that's out there.
36:47Sweetheart White Stilton.
36:51Okay, this is the ultimate insane flavored cheese.
36:55This is White Stilton with chocolate, caramel flavored fudge pieces, and dried sweetened cherries.
37:02Kind of crumbly like the apricot one.
37:08I've been dreading this cheese all day.
37:10And weirdly, it's not as like frightening as I thought it was going to be.
37:17There's so much stuff in it.
37:18The cheese is merely the glue that holds it all together.
37:22I think White Stilton is the ideal base for flavoring because it is really very neutral
37:27and it is not about the cheese.
37:30You don't buy White Stilton without stuff in it.
37:34It's not a cheese that's available on its own.
37:36And it does have this very particular kind of like moist crumbly texture that makes it smearable.
37:42So it's almost like, is it a spread or is it a piece of cheese?
37:46I've never seen this cheese anywhere.
37:48It could be a Trader Joe's exclusive.
37:49But if you want a sweet spreadable cheese with lots of stuff in it,
37:54you've found your perfect sweetheart.
37:58Everything but the bagel cheddar.
38:00Maybe it's just me, but the idea of
38:02savory flavorings in cheese is a lot easier for me to get my head around.
38:09This is a cheddar in name only.
38:11It's not going to have much in common with the cheddars that we've tasted today.
38:16And it is like walking into a bagel shop.
38:18It's like garlicky and oniony.
38:22They do an amazing job of getting intense concentrated flavor
38:27in every bite throughout the cheese.
38:28It's just very mushy and soft.
38:30It's not really cheddary at all.
38:32And it tastes like an everything bagel.
38:34If you're going for that flavor profile, this is nailing at 100%.
38:38And it would be an incredible melting cheese,
38:40which to me is just super conducive to this flavor profile.
38:44Cotswold double Gloucester.
38:46There are a lot of cheeses in England, not technically cheddars.
38:50The cheese making process is somewhat different.
38:52They usually take the name of the region they come from.
38:55And frankly, at least to me, they all remind me of cheddar.
39:00Double Gloucester is one of these cheeses.
39:02Cotswold is a flavored double Gloucester.
39:06So you take double Gloucester and then you add onion and chive and you get Cotswold.
39:12And that's what we have here.
39:13A firm, mild cheddar dyed orange by adding annatto.
39:18It's a plant derived coloring, doesn't impact flavor, makes the cheese orange.
39:23This is younger cheese.
39:26It's moister and it should be really dominated by onion and chive.
39:33The chive is freeze dried.
39:35We're not adding fresh produce to the cheese, but you get a much greater concentration of flavor
39:43by using those dried ingredients.
39:44And this is really chivey right off the bat.
39:46This does taste more like cheese with a hint of chive.
39:53That's what Cotswold should be.
39:54Even though this says Trader Joe's Cotswold, there's only one Cotswold.
39:59And they've allowed Trader Joe's to put their brand on it.
40:02So this is Cotswold.
40:05And if you like that style of cheese, you're going to be really, really happy.
40:08Cheddar with caramelized onions.
40:11This is an English farmhouse cheddar.
40:13The way they get the caramelized onion flavor in there is by using a marmalade
40:18of caramelized onion, which I think is brilliant.
40:21You address the stability issues, the shelf stable issues,
40:25at the same time that you can infuse a really intense flavor into the cheese.
40:29Flavor-wise, it's like super intense.
40:34I like a flavored cheese where I can taste the cheese first and the flavoring second.
40:40This is a cheese for somebody who wants to taste caramelized onion marmalade,
40:44delivered in a delightful cheese block format.
40:47This is not my favorite cheese, but this is 150% of what it promises to be.
40:52And it tastes great.
40:54Cheddar with scotch bonnet chili and red peppers.
40:57Here we have young cheddar infused with spicy scotch bonnet chili relish and sweet red bell pepper.
41:07What I'm looking for is actual heat.
41:09If you tell me you're making a pepper cheese, I want it to be spicy.
41:14It's very vinegary smelling.
41:17Okay.
41:18That's pretty spicy, honestly.
41:20No joke.
41:21I don't really get the sweet red pepper at all, but I get the spicy pepper.
41:25The one drawback is the texture is very weird.
41:28It's mealy, sort of smushes down in your mouth in a way that I don't really care for that much.
41:33There aren't many cheeses that really deliver on the promise of spice the way this one does,
41:38but I've definitely had spicy cheeses with better texture.
41:41My top seven cheeses of the day in recommended tasting order are chevre with fine herbs,
41:49fromage pave, goat's milk gouda style, mini basque, unexpected cheddar, thousand day gouda,
41:56and blue stilton.
41:58The chevre with fine herbs I loved for the bright, fresh, and unexpected herbaceous blend.
42:04Fromage pave for that extra hit of cream, insane butteriness, and whisper-thin rind.
42:10Goat's milk gouda style is an amazing introduction to the wonders of aged goat milk cheeses.
42:16Mini basque shows you the world of sheet milk cheese beyond manchego, coconutty and mellow.
42:22Unexpected cheddar because seven years of Trader Joe's customers can't be wrong.
42:26Parmesan and cheddar go really well together.
42:28The thousand day gouda was probably the best one overall. It reminded me of vanilla, bourbon,
42:34caramel. The flavor went on forever. And blue stilton, because I think every cheese plate needs a blue
42:41cheese, and this one was amazing, minerally balanced, and not at all overwhelming. Trader Joe's kills it at
42:48all of the fundamental cooking cheeses, but where they really shine is in curating an amazing assortment
42:54of cheese 101 classics. You can put together a great cheese board any night of the week at an insanely good value.