This is the second cheese of the line of cheeses called “witty” or treated in a crust with spirits, however alcoholic or liqueurs, inspired by a great French cheese Epoisse, we thought to propose to our customers this line of cheeses that as well as good to eat, must also be fun and witty to see.

The name is witty “the spinel”, which has nothing to do with amazing products or things that you smoke, but in reality this cheese was wanted with the cylindrical shape, almost to recall the cigarette, treated externally with annatto (natural dye extracted from a plant) that gives it the orange color, which is the same color of the liqueur with which it is treated this cheese, or the Spinel. Also in this case we wanted to seal the relationship with the producer who produces this Tuscan medicinal liqueur, made with the berries of the sea buckthorn, naming this cheese with the name of the liqueur drink.

The result is an “amazing” cheese, a very tasty and pleasant cheese, an unusual “two milks”, as it uses a mixture of cow and goat milk, which we use to wash the rind with the spinel in repeated passages, and then pack it with a double wrapper so as not to lose its acquired fragrance during aging.

It is recommended, in order to fully appreciate its characteristics, to consume it at room temperature, but to leave it closed in its packaging and discard it only at the last moment before eating it because the liqueur has an alcoholic base and is very volatile and drying you lose part of its characteristic. Obviously the crust is edible.

This cheese, even when it had not been put on the market, we entered it in 2016 in a competition reserved for refiners only, called “Amazement and Emotion”, won first prize in the category soft pastes.

Ingredients: Cow’s milk pasteurized and goat’s milk pasteurized, CREAM pasteurized, rennet and salt. Crust treated with annatto and Spinello liqueur.
Size: about 100 gr.
Packaging: shape wrapped with transparent film and inserted in the tray.
Duration of the packaged product: 25 days.

ALLERGENS: MILK and MILK proteins.

Product features:
Shape: parallelepiped with an ellipsoidal oval base, irregular flat faces and straight sides, sometimes with irregularities as well, as during ripening it tends to deform, creating convexity and depressions;
External appearance: very thin, moist and sticky rind, its colour is orange with a light coat of penicillium candidum;
Internal appearance: its paste is cream-coloured, soft and adhesive to the cut, without holes, increasing its maturation the paste cremifies more;
Smell: of cream, vegetable fermented grass and boiled potato, yeast and slightly alcoholic;
Flavour: moderately sweet, slightly salty, with a hint of acidity and bitterness conferred by the liqueur, it has a slightly adhesive paste, but also fairly soluble and of medium persistence.

Availability: since this is an experimental product, availability is not always required.

Food pairings: throughout the meal, from appetizers to aperitifs, in the cheese cutting board, but also for the preparation of first courses.

Oenological pairings: structured white wine but also with bubbles.

MEDIUM NUTRITIONAL VALUES per 100 gr of product:

• Energy value kcal 300
• Energy value KJ 1246
• Fats 25 gr
  of which saturated fatty acids 19 gr
• Carbohydrates 3,8 gr
  of which sugars 3,8 gr
• Protein 15 gr
• Salt 1 gr