Cheese Buyer - May 2025

36 AFFINEUR WALO H ave you noticed it too? Cheeses are getting more and more boring. All the character is gone. I always notice it when I sit on the jury at international competitions. One time I had fifty industrial Cheddar blocks to taste and rate. Each one tasted like the others; it was really impossible to say which was better. But why is that? It’s quite simple: because you can no longer taste the flower meadow. With pasteurising and processing, the whole story, the whole taste – the whole flower meadow– is removed. Every time I come to the raw milk cheeses, I am overwhelmed by the variety of the flavours. Of course, not every cheese tastes good to me, but if they have character, they will never be boring. That’s why I decided to create a new quality label for cheeses with full flavour, cheeses with character. I thought for a long time about how to define this label and, while trying out more cheese, I suddenly knew: what makes these raw milk cheeses special is the flower meadow that you can taste. What is a flower meadow cheese? The short definition is simple: it is a cheese made with untreated rawmilk. But not all cheeses made with rawmilk are flower meadow cheeses. @specialityfood The future is bright for flower meadow cheeses, says Affineur Walo FLOWER MEADOW IS A TASTE Why does flower meadow cheese taste so amazing? The traditional production from untreated rawmilk guarantees that the full flavour is preserved along with the vitamins and trace elements in the milk. Many industrial cheeses rely on highly standardised milk, safe and predictable, yes, but often lacking the nuance that makes traditional cheese so exciting. It’s not only the flavours that disappear, but also some of the vitamins and trace elements. Apart from that: if you had the choice between cheese from a cow that was kept in a barn and fed on fermented silage, or a cow that spends the summer romping around on flower meadows in the Alps, munching herbs, and eats dried hay in winter, which would ● Red Nose Gold Label ● Red Wine Farmer Cheese ● Jura Mountain Cheese ● Comté Antoine ● Creamy Thurgau Lion Cheese ● Gallus ● Stärnächäs ● Le Gruy è re AOP ● Emmentaler AOP FLOWER MEADOW CHEESE: AFFINEUR WALO VARIETIES you choose? Flower meadow cheeses aren’t just delicious – they are a commitment to biodiversity, artisan craftsmanship, and animal welfare. For shop owners and cheese lovers alike they offer something truly special: flavour with a story.