A great moment of appreciating my job came recently when I was discussing cheese with some of the cheese nerds on my staff. I then realized that Caputo’s Downtown’s staff has re-entered a Golden Age of Great Cheese Geekery, which brings me no end of pleasure.
Don’t get me wrong, we always have a lot of cheese lovers on the crew, but not like this—this is a group that really cares about the quality of the cheese we serve and enjoys it in their own homes often, as well. Understand, when you have managed a small business as long as I have, staff can begin to feel cyclical, as generation of crews change you get different personalities, approaches, and interests within the different goods we sell. Well, the wheel has turned, because we now again are in a moment of unsurpassed, unabashed cheese love.
The cheese prompting this heart-swelling conversation is a recent arrival from one of our favorite dairies, Quickes, from Devonshire, England. For years, my favorite cheddar that we have carried has been the Quickes Farmhouse Cheddar (this is probably the only only thing I have in common with the Queen of England). Well, Quickes makes more than just this flagship cheddar.
Quickes also makes another classic English-style cheese: red leicester. This cow’s milk cheese is stylistically very similar to cheddar. It uses raw cow’s milk and is bandage wrapped, etc. However, red leicester is dyed with with annatto extract, a coloring agent derived from the fruit of the annatto tree which hails from the Caribbean. Quickes ages their red leicester for for to eight months.
Quickes red leicester, which is produced by hand, displays rich creaminess from the raw milk, as well as Quickes characteristic grassy excellence, due to the lush grasses upon which their heritage breed cows graze. Less sharp and a little sweeter than their classic cheddar, red leicester is an exciting addition to our cheese selection. And we are all nerding out about this cheese around here, which makes it a good time to shop at Caputo’s.
Quickes red leicester is also part of our June Cravings, read more here.