Cheese of the Week: Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam

"Brie’s quirky Californian cousin."

Welcome to the very first cheese of the week! Each week on Curd is the Word, I will be showcasing a different type of cheese and sharing information about its taste, texture, production, pairings and the brand that produces it. First up we have organic Mt. Tam from Cowgirl Creamery.

Named after Mount Tamalpais mountain in Marin County, California, Mt. Tam is Cowgirl Creamery's #1 selling cheese.

"Brie’s quirky Californian cousin", Mt. Tam is an organic bloomy rind cheese with all the velvety smoothness typical of a triple-creme cheese and a dense, fudgy core. Its thin rind ranges from pillowy to birch bark in appearance with a taste reminiscent of mushrooms.

When young, Mt. Tam has notes of creme fraiche & cultured butter. As it ages, its salted butter, cream, fresh pasture, & white mushrooms notes intensify, its gooey creamline develops and its core becomes more fudgy and soft. This cheese truly melts in your mouth.

Pair this cheese with sparkling wines, wines with minerality such as Chenin Blanc, sparkling dry cider, drinking chocolate and sweet snacks such as preserves, honey and fig jam. Mt. Tam would be a delicious inclusion on a dessert cheeseboard.

The organic, single source, forage-based cow's milk used to make Mt. Tam comes from from Tresch Farms, part of Straus Family Creamery located in Sonoma, California. Triple-creme cheeses are made by adding extra cream to the whole milk during production. This makes the resulting cheese have a much more rich and creamy texture than cheeses made with solely whole milk. Mt. Tam cheese is USDA Certified Organic.

Two creameries make up Cowgirl Creamery, located in Point Reyes Station and Petaluma, California. The creamery located in Point Reyes station is the original creamery where many of Cowgirl's classic cheeses, including Mt. Tam, were created. Today, this creamery is used solely to make the iconic Red Hawk cheese. All other cheeses are made at the Petaluma location.

Cowgirl Creamery was established in 1997 by Sue Conley and Peggy Smith. They started Cowgirl Creamery to "celebrate organic practices and spotlight the craftsmanship of local sustainable agriculture in Marin and Sonoma counties" in California. They were inspired by Bay Area restaurants adopting organic farm-to-table operations during a hippie trip to San Francisco in 1976. Since then, Cowgirl Creamery has created award-winning organic cheeses, opened several retail stores and cafes, wrote a cookbook and participated in trade and community organizations. All Cowgirl Creamery cheeses are organic and made with pasture-based milk from local farms. In 2016, Cowgirl Creamery was acquired by Swiss cheese company, Emmi. Earlier this year, Sue and Peggy retired.

Find stores that carry Cowgirl Creamery cheeses here or visit the online store to shop their curated collections.