Cheese | 2014 Editors’ Choice Food Awards

View the winners of the 2014 Editors’ Choice Food Awards — Cheese Category.ASCUTNEY MOUNTAIN COBB HILL CHEESE Hartland, Vermont Cobb Hill Farm is a Vermont cooperative where residents run a farm, dairy, frozen-yogurt business, and maple operation, among other ventures. Neighbors Sophie Starr, Bonnie Hills, and Jeannine Kilbride manage the cheese operation, making their raw-milk alpine-style Ascutney Mountain with milk from the farm’s herd of Jersey cattle. We love the cheese’s golden color and nutty, vaguely sweet flavor. It’s excellent with nuts, mushrooms, apples, and pears. It also makes a mean fondue or grilled cheese sandwich. Suggested Retail Price: $22 per pound Where to Find It: Whole Foods markets in the Boston area; co-op stores around New England; Fair Field’s in Fairfield, CT; online at: cobbhillcheese.com INSPIRATION MOUNT MANSFIELD CREAMERY Morrisville, Vermont Inspiration is a true farmstead cheese, made with milk from a herd of about 30 Brown Swiss and Holstein cows on the farm of Stan Biasini and Debora Wickart. Stan and Debora use an old Corsican recipe for the cheese, as well as traditional molds that give the rind a beautiful patterned surface. But in a departure from French protocol, they wash the rind with seasonal beers from a local brewery. The beer gives the cheese a pleasing bitterness to go with its buttery tang and makes it a great match for smoked meats and ale. Suggested Retail Price: $19 per pound Where to Find It: Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA; City Market and Healthy Living in Burlington, VT; Harvest Market in Stowe, VT; Cabot Annex in Waterbury, VT; online at: mtmansfieldcreamery.comSQUARE CHEESE, a.k.a. NORTHSTONE TWIG FARM West Cornwall, Vermont Michael Lee and Emily Sunderman milk their herd of 50 goats to produce this gorgeously rustic cheese, whose distinctive shape comes from being tied in a cloth to drain; there’s even an indentation where the knot was tied. Its flavor reminds us of grass, toasted nuts, and herbs, and we like to serve it on bread with a drizzle of honey. Suggested Retail Price: $16.48 for 8 ounces Where to Find It: The Cheese Iron in Scarborough, ME; Rubiner’s Cheesemongers in Great Barring­ton, MA; many co-ops in Vermont; online at twigfarm.comCOUPOLE VERMONT CREAMERY Websterville, Vermont Allison Hooper kicked off Vermont’s artisanal-cheese movement when she started her creamery with partner Bob Reese 30 years ago. Many years, many cheeses, and many awards later, they’re still making some of the best stuff in New England. Coupole is an original American cheese with a gorgeous rippled surface, a creamy line just beneath it, and a beautifully dense paste in the center. It tastes of mushrooms, citrus, and sweet hay. Suggested Retail Price: $16.99 for 8 ounces Where to Find It: Most Whole Foods Stores and cheese shops; online at: vermontcreamery.com