9 Combinations to Sweeten Your Next Cheese or Charcuterie Board
Pure honey turns an average cheese or charcuterie board into an extraordinary gourmet experience. While the variety of cheeses available to taste test is evidenced by overflowing cheese displays found in most grocery store dairy departments, honey varieties can be a little more elusive and hard to find. There are actually hundreds of kinds of honey, each with its own unique flavor, which means there is a honey to perfectly complement every cheese.
The Asheville Bee Charmer BEEtenders have made a video and compiled a best of honey and cheese pairing recommendation list that’ll allow you to explore new honey flavors and combinations that can level up your next charcuterie board or hors d’oeuvres platter.
The Best Cheeses to Pair With Asheville Bee Charmer Honey
Alpha Tolman
Alpha Tolman from Jasper Hill Farms has a buttery fruit and nut flavor when young. As it matures it develops a bold, meaty, caramelized onion flavor.
Pairs With: Sourwood Honey
Midnight Moon
A creamy Gouda-style goat’s milk cheese made in Holland for Cypress Grove, Midnight Moon has a nutty brown butter taste with a long caramel finish.
Pairs With: Blackberry Honey
Gorgonzola Dolce
Gorgonzola Dolce is a soft, blue, buttery cheese made with pasteurized cow’s milk. It has a pale yellow, buttery paste with a distribution of blue and green veins. This cheese has a mild sweet flavor with a slightly milky tang. Gorgonzola Dolce is only aged for 45 days which accounts for its mild creaminess.
Pairs With: Tulip Poplar Honey
St. Nuage
St. Nuage, a triple-crème cow’s milk cheese, has a flavor that is mild but intensely buttery and rich, milky, and a little tangy. It contains hints of mushroom and a nice salt balance. This wonderful little “cloud”, as its name implies, is made in Burgundy France and then aged in the famous Herve Mons affinage caves.
Pairs With: Cocoa-Infused Honey
Keen’s Farmhouse Cheddar
Keen’s Cheddar, a raw cow’s milk cheese from Somerset, is among England’s finest farmhouse cheddars. The Keen family uses the West Country tradition of cloth binding and larding their cheeses and age the large wheels for nearly two years. Keen’s Cheddar has a hard texture, distinguished grassy flavor, and hint of spiciness. This classic Cheddar pairs perfectly with Jameson Honey.
Pairs With: Jameson-Infused Honey
Bleu d’Auvergne
Bleu d’Auvergne is a French cheese named after its place of origin in the Auvergne region of south-central France. The cheese is a creamy ivory color, dotted with blue-green mold thanks to the Penicillium roqueforti which gives the cheese its typical bluish-green veins. It is aged for a minimum of 4 weeks, at which time the cheese has developed an assertive flavor and smooth texture. The rind is moist and sticky unveiling a soft paste with a grassy, herbaceous, and (with age) spicy, peppery, salty, pungent taste.
Pairs With: Leatherwood Honey
Pecorino Toscano
Pecorino Toscano is hardy and nutty with a hint of salt and underlying savory and sweet flavors that grow stronger with age. The cheese tends to be firm and intensely flavored with a mildly peppery finish. This traditional Italian cheese is aged anywhere from 3-6 months at which time its savory intensity is at its peak.
Pairs With: Buckwheat Honey
Taleggio
When young, the flavors of this cheese are surprisingly bright, fruity, and clean, with just a slightly earthy taste on the finish. As it matures, the flavors of mushroom and earthiness develop. Aged for 8-12 weeks, the paste becomes white, dense and spreadable at room temperature.
Pairs With: Palmetto Honey
Blanche
Blanche from Three Graces Dairy is a cow’s milk soft-ripened cheese done in a traditional French style. Its bloomy rind and decadently creamy texture is the perfect accompaniment, either crafted into a Brie en Croute or on its own, to our sweet and spicy Firecracker Honey.
Pairs With: Firecracker Hot Honey
Explore all of Asheville Bee Charmer’s honey!
