The specialty cheese section at my local Shop-Rite comes through again! It's been pretty good, historically, about adding new types every so often. And my stance upon seeing new and unknown cheese varieties is to buy any immediately, so here we are. This was from the Champignon company, or less succinctly, the Champignon Hofmeister GmbH & Co. KG company. The specific kind I got was the Black Label type of Cambozola.
It seems like many to most cheese varieties spring up in a kind of natural manner--a specific area or culture starts making a cheese in a certain way, using certain ingredients, usually based on the type of milk available, the local weather, etc. But Cambozola is an exception. It's completely contrived, and rather recent in origin. In 1980, the Champignon Hofmeister cheese company decided to make a new kind of cheese, and this is the result. They wanted to make one that was a combination of a soft, creamy cheese, like Brie, and a sharp blue cheese, like a Roquefort. Or, as the name suggests, the child of a French Camembert and an Italian Gorgonzola. Made by a German cheese monger, to add to its cosmopolitan nature. The same blue mold that's used in Roquefort, Stilton, and Gorgonzola is used in Cambozola, and the cow's milk used to create the bulk of the cheese has extra cream added to it, for a milder, smoother taste. The texture of Cambozola is very soft, and even easily spreadable. The name is also a reference to the Roman name for Kempten, Cambodunum, which has a rich cheese-making history, and is also where Champignon Hofmeister started.
The company itself began as Kaserei Champignon in 1908, as a partnership between cheese maker Julius Hirschle and wholesaler Leopold Immler, in the town of Kempten, which is in the Allgau part of the Swabia region of Bavaria, Germany. The Hofmeister family took over in 1961, leading to their name being included in the official company title. According to the official company website, Champignon Hofmeister doesn't have a particularly large array of products for sale--it's just cheeses, and especially soft cheeses. They also make a Limburger, a Camembert, a Brie, and a blue cheese, to name a few. Also, a soft grilling cheese called Rougette. Currently the company exports to 55 countries around the globe, and employs over 1000 people. The Cambozola comes in two basic forms--the regular and the Black Label. The latter is aged longer, and kept colder, to sharpen the blue cheese flavor and for extra creaminess.
Champignon Hofmeister Cambozola Black Label: It had a whitish color, with blue streaks of mold. It was extremely soft, with a fairly strong blue cheese-y taste. Surprisingly good--the different flavors of creamy and sharp blue cheese complimented each other well. Two opposites making a cool mix. I had it both plain, and on some Italian toasts (more on those in a few weeks, or a month). Both ways were about the same, and very good. This wasn't the best cheese I've ever had, but it was definitely more than respectable.
I'm a broken record about cheese yet again. I very much enjoyed Cambozola, and heartily recommend it. I guess if you really dislike blue cheese, or soft cheeses, you might not like this, but I think pretty much everyone else will. So kudos to Champignon Hofmeister. They took a chance, and made a new cheese made from two very different cheese types and flavors. And the result was a bit odd, but still good. The only minor complaint I have with Cambozola is its price--a .4 pound (about 186 grams) piece was a bit expensive, being $9.30. So if you're on a budget, maybe save this one for special occasions.
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