Colorado Proud!! MouCo Camembert and ColoRouge
August 11, 2011
While in Denver, The Lady stocked up on local cheeses available at the new Murray’s Cheese Shops located in the Glendale King Soopers; bringing home eight different Colorado cheeses from three different cheesemakers.
She brought several other wedges for moi, your humble correspondent to taste and review. In fact, she had so many in her bags, the TSA opened her bags and searched my cheese stash. Fortunately for moi, they didn’t taste or confiscate them and all made it to the manse safely…
Tonight, we dived into our first two delicacies; two miniature wheels of camembert and brie from MouCo Cheese Company located in Fort Collins, Colorado.
MouCo is owned by husband and wife team, Robert Poland and Birgit Halbreiter who met while working at New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins. Birgit got her cheese start in Germany working for Kaserei Champignon. Her father is a master cheesemaker in Europe who comes to the US each year to work with Robert to further develop the MouCo cheeses into even more superior traditionally-made brie and camembert.
The cheeses are wrapped in breathable paper imported from France. This allows the cheeses to continue their natural aging process.
The camembert’s package stated that in July this cheese would be soft and creamy and that it would be best by mid-August… as it warmed to room temperature, it began to ooze just a bit and the taste was divinely tart with a slightly bitter after taste. The texture was creamy and buttery, just the way I like my camembert. The finish was nutty and lingering. The Lady served it to moi naked… no, the cheese was naked… she and The Man enjoyed it sitting on a Partners Cracker. Then she topped it with strawberry spread. The three of us were in camembert heaven…
I give MouCo Camembert 3 Paws out of 4 Paws (cause that’s all I’ve got).
Serving Suggestions: You can never go wrong serving this camembert on a cheese board with some jams and nuts. Camembert is also great with salami.
Wine Pairing: Colorado’s Infinite Monkey Theorem Rosé
Beer Pairing: Fort Collin’s Fat Tire from New Belgium
Source: Pasteurized Cow Milk
Along with the camembert, The Lady served the Colorouge, a reddish-tinged brie wheel that simply mouthed in my mouth… ooh la la… how I love brie. The label suggested it would be best by early September… it’ll never make it to September here at the manse. It’ll be lucky to make it to 7pm tonight…
This brie was a little firmer than the camembert and the flavor was buttery with just a touch of funk. Again, I enjoyed mine naked (again… the cheese… not your feline foodie… sheesh…) and The Lady and The Man went with warm French bread and a dollop of apricot preserves.
I give MouCo Colorouge 3 Paws out of 4 Paws (cause that’s all I’ve got).
Serving Suggestions: Again, you’ll win the hearts and souls of your guests when this brie is sitting on a cheese board.
Wine Pairing: Colorado’s Redstone Mead Raspberry Nectar
Beer Pairing: Colorado’s Odell Brewing’s 90 Shilling
Source: Pasteurized Cow Milk
MouCo Cheese is available at your new Murray’s Cheese Shop located at King Soopers on Leetsdale in Glendale, Colorado… stop in today and enjoy the new Murray’s Cheese Shop and take home some MouCo to enjoy tonight. The wines and beers recommended are also available in the liquor department as well. King Soopers is Colorado Proud!!
Cheesemonger's Weblog 
August 11, 2011 at 9:19 AM
As a resident of the wonderful city of Ft. Collins, and a true Colorado native (born and raised, baby!), I just want to thank you for the kind reviews you gave to two of the MouCo cheeses. My wife is fond of the Camembert (though she also enjoys the Colorouge), but for my money the Colorouge is the only way to go. Also, you made the rookie mistake of neglecting to mention pairing either cheese with any of the fine beers brewed by/at the Ft. Collins Brewery (FCB). The Colorouge goes beautifully with their Rocky Mountain IPA. I don’t care for the Camembert, so I don’t know which FCB beer would pair with it.
FCB deserves as much respect and admiration as Odell and New Belgium receive. Also, locals frequent FCB. The hipster-doofus segment of the population (most of whom are also locals) frequent Odell, and the lowly and often spit upon tourists, frequent New Belgium. How you could recommend pairing tourist beer with quality cheese is beyond me, but since you’re a) a cat, and b) not from around here I’ll just let it go. Anyway, thanks again. : )
August 11, 2011 at 9:41 AM
Mr. Richardson, thanks for your comments. As for my “rookie” mistakes and choice of “tourist” beer, I chose New Belgium because the MouCo owners both worked there. If I offended your superior palate, I apologize. Personally, because I am a superior feline, I don’t even drink beer… I rely on The Man to assist me in that area – so you can look down your nose at him… he tries, but he’s only a humankind so what do you expect??? I also thank you for taking the time to read the blog… and sincerely hope you will return. I will be reviewing Rocking W cheeses tonight and Haystack cheeses on Saturday – might I call on you to assist with the beer pairings???
August 14, 2011 at 12:26 PM
[…] Pairing: For fear of offending Mr. Richardson from Fort Collins (read his comment at the bottom), The Man decided to go with Fort Collins Brewery’s Weizenheimer […]