Yum! Treats from Japan

Last week the Test Kitchen tasted an awesome duo that we want to share with you -- Chimay beer and cheese. Both products are made by Cistercian Trappist monks from the town of Chimay, in the Belgian forest of Mont du Secours.

The Abbey of Notre-Dame de Scourmont was built in 1850 as a place to study, pray and work, later adding a dairy and brewery to help generate funds for their livelihood. Today, they produce three kinds of beer and four kinds of cheese, all under the name Chimay.

Bieres de Chimay
Chimay is perhaps the best known of the Trappist breweries and one of the most recognized names in Belgian beer. Real Trappist beers carry a logo on the bottle confirming that they are "Authentic Trappist Products." Authentic Trappist beer is brewed inside a Trappist monastery under the control and responsibility of a community of monks. Financial return is mostly intended for social help and to assist their charitable foundations.

With our cheese, we drank Chimay Premier, a medium-bodied, red-amber ale with a fruity nose of apricots and sweet herbal hops, lots of toasty malt flavours and a mildly bitter finish. Yum!

Beer-washed cheese
Since 1876, the Trappist monks have been making cheese and maturing it in the vaulted cellars of the abbey. Today, Chimay cheese is made exclusively with regional milk and the monks have modernized their production equipment.

The Chimay cheese we tasted is a special variation of their original recipe because its rind is washed with Chimay beer (rather than spring water). This semi-soft cheese has a delightful smooth, nutty flavour with just a hint of hops and malt near the rind. But, its bark is worse than its bite! Though considered one of the whiffiest cheeses in the world, the flavour is actually quite mild and pleasant, especially when enjoyed with beer.

Both beer and cheese are favourites of the Test Kitchen and would make great additions to any party with foodie friends (or with a baguette and just one friend, cuddled up on a cold winter's night).

Buying Notes:
The beers and cheeses of Chimay are marketed extensively throughout the world. We bought Chimay Premiere at our local liquor store for about $6 (750 mL) a small piece of the beer-washed cheese at a nearby fine food store for about $5 (175g).

*Next week look for notes on Canadian beer-washed cheese.