It's back to my favorite food ever once again--lovely, wonderful cheese. In this case, an Edelblu kind from the Bergader brand. Will this be the first cheese I've ever disliked? Keep reading to find out!
Bergader is a moderately old company, having started in 1902. Basil Weixler, German man living in the Bavarian town of Waging am See, started a small cheese dairy. In the 1920's he developed his own cheese, one that was similar to the French Roquefort. The major difference was that Weixler's was made using cow's milk, not sheep's milk. Weixler didn't try to hide the similarity, as he named his cheese "Bavarian Mountain Roquefort." Which caused some legal problems for him. The folks who owned the rights to Roquefort brought him to court, and beat Weixler. Therefore, he had to rename his cheese "Bergader Edelpilz" instead. However, the attention sparked by the media's coverage of the court proceedings actually helped, and Weixler's cheeses gained in popularity. Weixler died in 1945, but Bergader has remained in his family, with his descendants continuing to own and control the company up until the present day. Bergader's line of products isn't that extensive. Most are soft, blue cheese variants, including Edelblu (aka Edlepilz), several kinds of Bavarian blus, and other types of soft cheese. And a couple of semi-hard types as well. If you're curious about the name, "Bergader" translates directly into "mountain vein." "Berg" is German for "mountain," and "ader" means "vein." Usually this word refers to a vein of metallic ore, as in what fuels a mining operation. But, Weixler picked the name because the blue mold streaks going through his cheeses reminded him of the veins of metal that can pass through a mountain or rock formation.
Bergader Edelblu cheese, gourmet variant: This cheese was white, with bluish-black streaks of mold visible. It had a strong, almost pungent odor. The texture was fairly soft, although not spreadable. The flavor was salty and sourish. I had some plain, and it was very good. Not my favorite blue cheese, but still very tasty. On a potato chip was even better--the texture and taste of the chip improved the experience. So, to answer the kind of ridiculous, click-bait-y question I posed in the opening paragraph, no, this wasn't the first cheese I disliked. It was very respectable and tasty, and I would recommend it enthusiastically, unless you're a person who doesn't enjoy strong, blue-type cheeses. (On a spelling note, I've been using the spellings used by Bergader throughout this post--most notably, they spell "blue" as "blu." Which seems to be something that Bergader does on their own, as the internet claims the German word for "blue" is "blau," not "blu." But just so you know.)
Spooky Month, known more boringly as October, is approaching fast, and I've been working on my posts for that time. As I always do lately, I'll include several horror movie trivia quizzes. I am making a concerted effort to cover slightly more recent movies this time. So two of them will be 21st century offerings. And the one that is from the (late) 20th century is VERY famous and popular, so if you're not familiar with it, that's your mistake.
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