COMMENTARY
Rogue Creamery Rogue River Blue. ##Photo by Kathryn Elsesser

Simply the Best

Rogue blue better than all the rest

By Hilary Berg

In the popular holiday movie “Elf,” Will Ferrell’s character, the big elf himself, upon seeing a sign hanging in the window of a New York café that reads “World’s Best Cup of Coffee,” bursts through the door and exclaims to the deadpan staff: “Congratulations! You did it! World’s Best Cup of Coffee. Great job, everybody! It’s great to meet you.”

Of course, this is an extremely gullible man who’s been isolated in the North Pole and doesn’t know the sleek way with words that companies use to sell their products. What he sees, he believes — like a child who doesn’t know better.

But we adults — non-elfin — do know better and are often leery of extravagant claims. If it seems too good to be true, it most likely is.

I’ll admit, I had this reaction when I first heard about Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue being crowned the “World’s Best Cheese.” I couldn’t believe it, not because the cheese isn’t incredibly delicious and crafted with the highest standards, but simply on the grounds: It seems unlikely a small creamery in small-town Oregon could beat the likes of generations’ old operations in Europe and around the globe.

But they did, and that’s what makes this award so incredible. Up against the best of the best, Rogue River Blue, was simply the very best. Period.

Can you receive a higher compliment than that? Of course, the next arena of judgment would be the universe, but that would be impossible to organize. Besides, do aliens even like cheese?

What Rogue Creamery has accomplished is so impressive, on so many levels, that the least we could do is showcase the winner in a cover story with a spotlight on the Southern Oregon wines in the area, including the bottle in the photo, Ledger David Syrah — the tasting room sits next to Rogue Creamery in Central Point and the varietal is a nod to the cheese’s leafy wrap.

As for the title, it seemed obvious for a December issue. Besides, a “Blue Christmas” sounds good to me, as long as it includes a hunk of the winning cheese, which, at this point is harder to find than the seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest — minus the Lincoln Tunnel.

Happy holidays and congrats to the team at Rogue Creamery on their much-deserved recognition.

 

 

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