BARELY BUZZED: Cheese with Coffee Rind Captures Awards

What does a former finance software executive do when he closes the door on that world? If he's Tim Welsh, he starts an artisanal cheese company and wins top national honors within two years.

Tim gathered up his brother-in-law, Pat Ford, and childhood friend, Stewart Christensen, and together they explored the world of cheese making for four years, aided greatly by the Utah State University Agricultural School which "really taught us how to make cheese," Welsh said. Beehive Cheese Co. officially opened in the fall of 2004 in Unitah, a small suburb near Ogden, Utah.

Like so many good foods, the coffee rind idea for Barely Buzzed was a result of curiosity and a few "what ifs".

"My brother Dan had created a special blend of coffee for us, and we loved it. I asked myself if perhaps a rub along the outside would make a great rind," Welsh said. The coffee is a special blend created by Dan's Colorado Legacy Coffee Company that blends selections from Sumatra and Costa Rica along with a dark-roasted Columbia that is ground to a Turkish-style pulverized powder.

"It needed something else, so I added a few crushed buds of lavender to the pulverized coffee with a little canola oil and, truth be told, placed it on the aging shelf and forgot about it while I pursued the many details to growing our new business. When I discovered it several months later, and tasted it, I realized this was something wonderful. The combination of lavender and coffee alters the taste of the cheese and gives it an incredible texture and a subtle floral finish. Its bold nutty flavor appeals to the most sophisticated palates yet they cannot detect either the lavender or the coffee. What they taste is a creamy, rich, slightly sharp cheddar taste that is very appealing, Welsh added.

Our tasters did indeed detect a definitive yet subtle taste of coffee, especially in the first bite which includes the rub. The coffee taste gives the cheese a very smoky taste, not unlike a smoked gouda, yet with more depth and tartness. Subsequent bits of the cheese itself provided the faintest hint of coffee and the excellent" raw cheddar flavor" came through very well. The lavender, on the other hand, is not detectable nor truly identifiable yet offers up a mellow floral resonance.

Following casual tastings of this new cheese among family and friends, the company took a bold step to put the new cheese to the test among fellow cheese makers with samples at the American Cheese Society conference in Portland, Oregon in 2006. The company was overwhelmed to receive an order for 4,000 pounds from the prestigious Central Market in Texas. "The buyer loved it," said Welsh, "and I had to tell him we didn't yet have 40 pounds much less 4,000 pounds, but he said I'll take whatever you have."

The market soon got 500 pounds. "We're making it as fast as we can," Welsh added, with selected Wild Oats and Whole Foods Markets, Bristol Farms, Nugget Markets, Murray's Cheese, Central Market and other high-end gourmet markets clamoring for more. The 16-20 pound round of the cheese sells upward of $24 a pound.

Beehive Cheese Co. then presented its hand crafted cheese, newly named Barely Buzzed, to the 2007 American Cheese Society's show in Burlington, Vermont where nearly 1200 cheesemakers were represented in various categories. Beehive's Barely Buzzed won First Place in the Flavored Cheddar Category.

Not bad for just two years on the market!

The company also makes a Unitah Jack - a dry, aged Jack; Aggiano, a dry Italian-style cheese; Promontory Cheddar and flavored Promontory, including Rosemary, Habanero, and one smoked with English walnut shells and apples as the smoke source; Full Moon, a raw-milk cheddar, and Emigrant, a cross between cheddar and Parmesan. Terroir counts as an essential element in the richness of the milk Beehive. uses and the luxurious alfalfa that grows near the great Salt Lake on the Wadeland South dairy farm is the staff of life for its Jersey cows.

For more information, visit www.beehivecheese.com or call them at 1-866-982-HIVE (448) or 1-801-476-0900.