Pictured are two cut Gouda's from the same batch, made 7 February 2017.
Raw Jersey milk from Helen and Roxy, who were on a mixture of grass and hay.
I have cut another, slightly differently treated cheese from the same batch, and it shows the same deep interior colouration!
The smaller "blind" cheese is crusted in cocoa powder. The larger was crusted in coffee grounds, the bulk I have washed off for the photo.
The difference in eye formation is marked. I added no secondary cultures, only CH-N-19. Both cheeses came from the same pot on the same day.
So what caused the difference?
I don't have a Ph meter, so I can't measure that, but possibly the coffee grounds are a touch more acidic than the cocoa powder (I seem to recall they add lime)?
Tasting, there was a delicious coffee aroma to the coffee cheese, and the taste followed through nicely. No bitter notes, just a rich coffee flavour, about like you would get from an expensive coffee flavoured chocolate.
The cocoa cheese didn't taste as interesting. No real chocolate smell and any taste was lost in the cheese (my gouda's are usually quite strongly flavoured.) Looks spectacular though!
