Cypress Grove TodayĪmid the company’s launch of Little Giant and continued success, Nessler said she and her team are proud of the place they have in the American specialty cheese landscape, while also growing alongside the American Cheese Society and other incredible cheesemakers. Acquisition has been a rite of passage for many artisanal cheese companies in California including Cowgirl Creamery, Laura Chenel and Redwood Hill, and has allowed the company to expand and secure its future. In 2010 Keehn sold Cypress Grove to Swiss company Emmi. A self-proclaimed hippie and single mother of four, she had no idea or plan to start a company when she started making goat cheese at home when a friend urged her to sell some at a Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. The story behind Keehn’s cheesemaking dates all the way back to the '70s when she adopted a couple of goats from her neighbors. Namely, Little Giant has different ripening cultures, higher curd moisture, and different secondary ripening cultures than Humboldt Fog, the company’s flagship cheese. While it’s part of Cypress Grove’s soft-ripened, bloomy rind collection of goat cheese, a few things set it apart. Nessler said it “has been known to mysteriously disappear in one sitting.” That may be in part because although it’s a petite 4 ounces, it’s big on flavor. It can be served with briny olives, shortbread cookies, and wildflower honey, and it pairs well with sparkling wine and hazy IPAs. It’s currently packaged and sold in small wheels. The ooey-gooey, soft-ripened goat cheese is the result of “years-long experimentation and development,” said Nessler. It’s a bloomy rinded cheese that’s buttery and smooth with slightly sweet, yeasty, fresh-bread taste and mushroom notes that deepen with age. Never satisfied to rest on their laurels, Cypress Grove just added a new cheese to the herd: Little Giant. It has since become the company’s most popular cheese. To do this, she allowed the wet curd to hang longer and hand-packing the resulting drier curd into forms lined with cheesecloth, and then immediately turning out the cheese to reuse the form again. Humboldt Fog launched in 1992 after the company’s founder Mary Keehn, “literally dreamt up a cheese” says Cypress Grove’s senior marketing manager Haley Nessler, borrowing from the classic traditions of French cheesemakers while adding “a generous amount of American irreverence and ingenuity.” Keehn created the recipe during her modest beginnings in Northern California, when she didn’t have enough funds for more than a few cheese forms. It’s unique for a goat cheese because of its hand-packed dry curd and penicillium candidum rind with a Morbier-like ash line just under the rind, resembling a French Brie. Flavors include fresh cream and buttermilk, and like other soft-ripened cheeses, and it becomes zestier with age. Humboldt Fog considered the company’s flagship, is a soft-ripened goat cheese that has a distinctive ribbon of black ash that feathers when sliced, replicating the fog in Humboldt County. But just shy of their 40th anniversary Cypress Grove continues to create new cheeses and takes pride that their model dairy is certified by the American Humane Association. The company is best known for one of the most famous goat cheeses in America, Humboldt Fog, which has won first-place awards from the American Cheese Society and gold at the World Cheese Awards multiple times. Cypress Grove was an early leader in the American goat cheese movement and is celebrated for its soft-ripened, fresh, and aged cheeses.
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