Origin: Eastern france
We paid: 1.98e per 100g
Texture: This is a perfectly medium-soft cheese with a spring in its step, akin to the Englishman’s best friend cheddar. Ours has basically melted in the 41 degree heat of Bordeaux… In the mouth it starts off solid but quickly dissolves into a soft, smooth velvet that tastes as expensive as Paris Hilton’s Juicy Couture tracksuit. Although creamy, there is still an element of the grittier texture of harder cheeses and like Westlife, these two textures work in perfect harmony.
Taste: Bloody brilliant. It makes our tongues tingle and our mouths water. It’s almost sweet, has nutty flavours and is really well rounded. The aftertaste is slightly more bitter, insanely moreish and makes Comté a really satisfying cheese to eat. The flavour is kind of reminiscent of a fancy Edam, but really, really fancy. If Edam was Lidl, this would be Harrods.
Strength: Not that strong – if you aren’t a massive fan of cheese this is a good one to go for, 5/10. We also bought two other pieces; one aged 12 months and the baby of the family at just 4 months old. Although it’s the youngest we feel like it should probably be treated more like middle child and just be forgotten about – a 3/10 for strength.
Comparisons of ages: At 1.25e per 100g, the 4 month has relatively little taste and unfortunately is yet to develop any of the characteristic flavours that define Comté. Its particularly mild flavour reminds us of Babybel, however we think you should just ba ba ba, ba ba ba bin it. As it’s still rubbery the velvety creamy melting stage is lost, which is a vraie catastrophe.
The 12 month one is a lot nuttier and significantly less sweet. The after-taste is still convincingly Comté but it’s slightly more salty and cries out for some cranberry sauce. It’s slightly cheaper than the older variety at 1.82e per 100g and although we prefer the old one, like Sean Connery and Daniel Craig it’s more a matter of preference.
Final thoughts: Ellen has the same taste in Comté as she has in men; the older and richer the better. We are really obsessed with this cheese and could eat it all night long (all night, all night). This cheese looks plain enough and at first nothing special, then all of a sudden you find the creaminess, the grittiness and it’s like entering Narnia.
** SPECIAL GUEST!! **
Let us now hand you over to our first ever star guest, Ellen’s brother Scott, coming to you live from our sofa for some parting words!
Scott: This one kind of tastes like… I can’t think of what it tastes of. I don’t know. (On being given the 12 month cheese) I feel like I’m eating a candle, it’s not really got the flavour. The first one (18 month) was top notch actually. (Izzy cuts him a big slice of the 4-month cheese) Oh no what’s up with the texture! This one’s just like a more rubbery candle. (We ask for a final score) Ooh that’s tough. I’d give it a … wait wait wait. What am I rating it on? Okay I’ll go for a 7.8.
Overall score: 11/10
Sweet dreams are made of cheese, who am I to diss a Brie?
Excellent! Btw no cheese in the world cries out for cranbery!!!! No no no!
Compte is my bestest favourite ! I’m with Ellen – the older and richer the better – cheese that is…
Comte is one of my favourite French cheese, it is nearly perfect in balance ! What I really like to do to reach perfection in my mouth is to put together a piece of emmental, one of goat cheese and one of Camembert equally proportioned and it takes me to another world ! I get also three different texture that compensate each other so well.
So when I have a piece of comte, I get nearly that perfect balance on it s own !
But we are all so different and taste has no rules… if you fancy cranberries with your cheese it s absolutely fine with me, food is pleasure and each individual should follow his own ” gourmandise “
Gisele, we are definitely going to try this three-cheese thing!!
Wonderful Web Site