With the arrival of the first fresh local goat cheeses of the season, it’s been hard to focus on anything else at Fort Cheese. However, Laura pulled us aside the other day to try a slice of Juni, an italian cow’s milk cheese filled with crushed dried juniper berries – the same botanicals used to give gin its distinctive flavor. The flavor was amazing and is a perfect way to celebrate the passing of winter and the arrival of spring. The cheese is firm and clean-tasting and the juniper berries add a tang of pine. We can’t describe it better than saying it tastes like a creamy gin martini.

Juni is made in the upper valleys of the Beilla area of Piedmont in Italy at a family-run creamery that has been in operation for four generations and sources milk from local farmers who raise an obscure and ancient breed of cow – the Pezzata Rossa d’Oropa. But for this cheese, this breed of cow may not exist.

Ask one of our cheese whizzes for a sample!