MORE CHEEEEEESE has been one of our most frequently requested additions to our Grocery, and today we’re happy to say that we’re off to a good start - with 8 high-quality cheeses to choose from. (If you just want to skip straight to seeing the expanded selection, and grabbing 10% off, skip to the bottom of this email.)

How have we selected what cheeses to carry?

Like all of our products, we carefully examine the ingredients. There are lots of imported cheeses on the market in Thailand, but when you start digging into the ingredients lists, you might not like what you find. Here’s a label from a typical shredded cheese product:

Fun fact: Cellulose is indigestible fibrous material (usually made from wood pulp) that’s mixed in to make shredded cheese that doesn’t stick to the other pieces in the bag. Shred your cheese at home, folks!

OK, so heavily-processed “cheese products” are out. What’s next?

We’re looking for the following when we bring a new cheese to our Grocery:

‣ Grass-fed or organic: Healthy, naturally-fed cows make healthy, natural milk. Cheese that’s made with milk from grass-fed cows has higher levels of healthy fats, including the cancer-suppressing CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) and the more well-known omega 3’s.

Unfortunately, cheese from 100% grass-fed milk is hard to find, except from countries with abundant grassland and good year-round weather (thank you, New Zealand!) - and even harder to find in Thailand as many international grass-fed cheese producers sell only in their local markets.

So as a secondary option, we also carry cheese that is certified organic, which usually means that the cows must graze on grass for part of their diet, and any part of their diet from feed must be organic - this means it is guaranteed to be free of the GMO ingredients and pesticides that would be used in the feed products of conventional farms.

Grazing cows at one of the Mainland farms in New Zealand.
 

‣ High-integrity producers: We’re looking for cheesemakers who share our values when it comes to natural production methods and ingredients. A good example is in Europe where there are regional organizations dedicated to protecting the integrity of the cheeses (and other foods) that carry their label - they inspect and monitor every step of the production process to make sure the ingredients are of local origin and meet certain quality requirements, and that production follows the traditional methods. In the case of the AOP designation from France or the DPO label from Italy, this means the cows must receive a majority of their diet from grass and not receive any supplementary GMO feed.

‣ No artificial preservatives or other non-natural ingredients. For shelf life, perfect consistency, or more expedited (read: cheaper) production processes, it’s common to see various additives in cheese - even in the ones that are not obviously processed foods like shredded cheese products. We’re looking for the opposite: minimally processed and free from any non-food ingredients.

Sounds great - but I’m lactose intolerant.

Did you know that most lactose-intolerant people can still enjoy eating many types of cheese? Lactose - the natural sugar in milk - is converted into lactic acid by bacteria which creates the curdling as milk ultimately becomes cheese. If you are sensitive to lactose, remember that the longer the cheese is aged, the less lactose will remain in the cheese (and carbohydrates too). Good super-low lactose options are aged cheddar, gouda, swiss, and parmesan.

Not coincidentally, those four are among the new cheeses we’ve added:

The stuff dreams are made of 🧀

‣ Aged cheddar: We love the aged cheddars from Mainland Cheese, a New Zealand grass-fed cheese producer for more than 65 years. If you have a few minutes, check out their great vintage TV commercials from the 1990s on Youtube.

‣ Edam: A more mild cheese originally from the Netherlands. Some of the fat is skimmed out of the milk 

‣ Gouda: The more famous cheese from our Dutch friends, made from whole milk. We like the organic ones from Landana, one which is softer and more mild and the other harder and sharper in flavor.

‣ Swiss: Another classic, we like the one from Mainland because it is made with grass-fed NZ milk.

‣ Parmigiano reggiano DOP: Great for your pasta, baked vegetables, or just on a cheese board, this is an exceptional parmigiano cheese from the Modena area of Italy, where the production methods haven’t changed much in 900 years.