Meyer Amsterdammer product reviews

Since the wrapper said The Amsterdammer is the youngest of Meyer's Cheese range I expected it to be the mildest in flavour too and I wasn't wrong. It is still a very nice eating cheese which my children (Miss 4 and Miss 5.5) enjoyed nibbling on. I found myself polishing off the remainder of the cheese in front of the television one night too.The smooth texture in my mouth was fantastic. As with the other Meyer Cheeses I have tried it is irresistible.

I used some of the cheese to make muffins. The cheese was easier than I expected to grate as it was a thin wedge I had been given and a softer cheese. As you can imagine the children enjoyed sampling a odd pieces of grated cheese that fell outside the grater. The muffins were a hit with my youngest daughter and she had been requesting one every day in her lunch box. Thankfully for her I put the rest of the muffins in the freezer so this is possible. I felt they they didn't brown on the top the way my cheese muffins usually do but that was just an appearance thing. They had a subtle cheese flavour and were great with a dollop of chutney in the middle.

Of the three Meyer cheese's I was given this was probably my least favourite mainly because the garlic and chives had a strong flavour. The Amsterdammer is for people that like a subtle cheese (like my children do) or a cheese to compliment other stronger flavours.

I'm a little picky about my cheeses, and while I can appreciate the amazing effort that goes into making hand-crafted cheese, I do ask that it be something pretty good when the price-tag rises above $10/kg. And though this cheese is indeed amazing hand-crafted cheese, it was by far the mildest flavour in the range, and thus didn't spark my interest the way I hoped it would.

After trying it on it's own, and finding it to have a wonderful soft and almost silky texture, it had almost no flavour my life-long-abused taste buds could detect. Though this is not a glowing appeal for me, it did bring to mind that such a quiet cheese is also not going to try and overtake any other flavours it is paired with.

One of my wife's new favourite snacks is something I have only recently come to enjoy - a basic "Margarita" cracker - bare cracker, a little butter, a slice of tomato, a young basil leaf, and a grind of fresh black peppercorns. Throw that back in a single bite and you have a snack that is surprisingly rich in flavour. Add a nice slice of Meyer Amsterdammer and you add body, without adding any competing flavour, which suddenly added a lot of appeal for this cracker, in my eyes.

Thinking about it, I swapped butter for a home-made tomato relish, and replaced the tomato and basil with a slice of yummy LASCo 'Italian' salami and dropped a slice of Amsterdammer on top. Instant flavour hit, which made it an instant snack hit for me. I snapped a photo of the second one I made, then promptly demolished four more in rapid succession. That was my 'afternoon tea' snack which held me comfortably until dinner 3 hours later.

Overall, though I found the lack of any real flavour a little disappointing, I was really impressed with the soft texture of the cheese - not as soft as a mozzarella, but softer than a mild cheddar for sure. It grated well, though I wouldn't recommend it really. I think slicing it would be far more suitable and respectful for a cheese with a pedigree such as Meyer Gouda. Would I buy it again, possibly, though for a cooking cheese I think I would aim for something cheaper. This, I would save for something really special, I think.