Trader Joe’s Raw Milk Blue Cheese
April 9, 2010
On Easter Sunday, The Man requested Lettuce Wedge Salad to go with the steaks he planned to grill. That meant The Lady would make the Blue Cheese Dressing. When she went to the cheese cupboard, it was bare, but she promised to bring home a wedge of Black River Gorgonzola to use in her recipe.
As happens in the cheesemines, The Lady got busy and forgot to buy the cheese for the dressing. Rather than disappoint The Man, she stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up a wedge. It was Easter and there was little choice on the shelves. She went for their own brand of Raw Milk Blue Cheese thinking it must be good; after all it had their name on the label.
Well… as it turns out, The Lady was wrong… this blue cheese had almost no flavor… something this Feline Foodie thought was impossible… doesn’t blue cheese always have flavor? Isn’t that somewhere in the blue cheese making contract: “Will have flavor”. But not this time. To call this cheese bland would be doing a dis-service to all the bland cheeses of the world.
The Lady is a big fan of Trader Joe’s in general, but she made a promise to The Man and me… no more Trader Joe’s brand cheeses…
I give Trader Joe’s Raw Milk Blue Cheese 1 limp Paw out of 4 Paws (cause I don’t have less than 1). It won’t kill ya; but neither will it thrill ya…
Serving Suggestions: Mixed with Roquefort, this cheese might not mess up your dressing; but other than that… I got nothin’…
Cheesemonger's Weblog 
April 10, 2010 at 12:23 AM
Cheeeeese is my life! Haha, i’ve never tried a raw milk blue cheese though. would love to try this when i get the chance!
April 10, 2010 at 6:30 AM
Yes, but good money says you’ll be disappointed… Amy, thanks for stopping by!!
February 16, 2011 at 9:42 AM
[…] Trader Joe’s Raw Milk Blue Cheese […]
May 8, 2011 at 9:08 PM
You are very right. I am a blue cheese from way back, but finally decided to step up a notch in my appreciation of different brands.
Trader Joe’s had a self-branded chalk-white blue that is stiff and crumbly, and the veining mostly in the inner 1/3…it has almost no Blue cheese tangy or smokey, mushroomy undertones; it’s awful.
They have a blue-wrapped cave-aged one, too, which is tangy and tasty but doubly-wrapped in blue foil AND plastic airtight shrink-wrap. The middle 1/3 of it is wonderful, and most of the outer 2/3 horribly flavored with ammonia…I couldn’t place the flavor at first; had noticed it among some of the other more expensive and less tangy imported brands they sell…hated that faint undertone.
But on this wedge it was so much like cat pee or seriously over-ripe diaper pee that I gaqged; this time it was unmistakable! Last time I had left it out n the car for 3 hours while shopping and thought the pink tinged-edge and bad taste were my fault.
Nope! The cheese experts on the web say ammonia is a sign of spoilage, bot necessarily rot, but often due to suffocating the cheese living mold with PLASTIC wrap, so that ammonia develops and permeates the cheese.
I will be taking it back. And what a shame, because the first time I bought it, the middle 1/3 last time was yummy. Listen up, Trader Joe’s! (But they ignore input on their web site. I tried feedback about their gluten-free rye bread, which is inedible even by GF standards.)
May 9, 2011 at 2:29 AM
As one of the feline persuasion, I resent comparing anything to cat pee… in a negative way… but that’s pretty much the direction The Lady and I would take on this cheese. And TJs has so many great produucts… this is not one… thanks for stopping and commenting… Spaulding Gray, Portland’s Feline Foodie. 🙂
September 5, 2011 at 1:39 PM
Wow! I found this because I purchased some blue cheese from Trader Joe’s and it’s some of the best blue cheese I’ve ever eaten so I was wanting to know who made it.
Maybe they changed providers.
September 5, 2011 at 2:03 PM
Others have told me how good they find the TJs – perhaps I got an older wedge – it does lose flavor past its peak… thanks for commenting and reading.