Cheese & Coffee (Uptown) – Albuquerque, New Mexico
Imagine canoodling in a hot tub with your sweetheart while enjoying a brilliant symphony of light courtesy of the aurora borealis as you both sip on hot coffee in which reindeer cheese bobs luxuriously. It’s likely you find that romantic scenario very appealing save perhaps for seeing reindeer cheese floating atop your hot coffee. While that scenario may sound unreal…maybe even surreal to most of us, it’s a reality in Finland where cheese is a favorite addition to a type of coffee called kaffeost. Not just any cheese can make the cut, however. Finnish folks only use a particular type of cheese called leipäjuusto which translates loosely to “bread cheese.” Despite that translation, “bread cheese” is one-hundred percent cheese. There’s absolutely no bread in it. The sobriquet “bread cheese” comes from the cheese’s absorbent qualities. This cheese soaks up the coffee. You don’t need to be a barista to make kaffeost. It’s as simple as adding the cheese to your coffee and letting it soak for a few minutes before fishing it out and eating it separately. First-timers and aficionados praise the flavor of the cheese which inherits the roasted flavors of the coffee. The softened chunks also warrant high…
