Blue with a kick instead of a punch.

Cheese Maker Carr Valley operates four cheese plants and eight retail stores throughout Wisconsin. Crazy, right! Each facility specializes in something. Their facilities include the original Carr Valley plant for vat-salted cheeses, a Mauston facility for brine-salted and pre-pressed cheeses, a specialized blue cheese factory in Linden, and a bread cheese facility in Fennimore. All cheeses are aged and finished at their distribution facility in Portage, where they conduct affinage, waxing, cotton wrapping, packaging, aging, and smoking operations.

Cheese: The addition of pepperoncino rossi peppers is added to the curd before the cheese is "hooped" or ladled into forms to drain. This process creates a cheese that delivers both the classic complexity of a quality blue cheese and the exciting heat of premium peppers.

Glacier Wildfire Blue is aged for a minimum of three months. The result is a semi-soft cheese with visible dots of red pepper distributed throughout the distinctive blue veining.

Tasting Notes: Glacier Wildfire Blue has a blue start with a distinctive peppery finish. The cheese offers the creamy, crisp, and clean flavor, and don’t you worry your pretty little head about it being too spicy. It’s not.

Pairing Suggestions: Wine pairings include white wines such as Viognier and Chardonnay, which complement the cheese's creamy texture while balancing the pepper heat. For beer, moderately hoppy selections like American Pale Ales provide excellent accompaniment. The cheese pairs nicely with fresh fruits, particularly strawberries. And never forget about the brownie idea I told you about a few boxes ago.

USE: This is not a recipe tested by us, but recently a customer told us that they add blue cheese to their mac & cheese. Color us intrigued! Let us know if you try it.