Say Cheese Bar!
This is the “battle cry” of Poncelet Cheese Bar, in Madrid. If you are a cheese lover, you should visit it. In its cheese cellar there are 150 different cheese from 11 countries. The dishes are cooked with, at least, one kind of cheese. But don’t worry if you are not keen on cheeses, they have an “anti-cheese” menu as well!
A visit to Poncelet Cheese Bar is an immersion in the wide, tasty cheese’s world. The smell of cheese takes over the launge but it is mixed with other aromas from the kitchen which gets your moutgh is watering in a second.
The cheese cellar is a sort of sanctuary, where you can see but don’t touch, with 150 different references from 11 countries: soft, strong, blue, cured, from cow milk, sheep milk… All of them are artisan cheese which has been carefully selected by the “cheese tuner” team of Poncelet Cheese Bar from all around the world.
A visit to Poncelet Cheese Bar is rewarding in many aspects. If you love cheese, you will have the opportunity to try different classes of it from all over the world, which gives you the opportunity to taste always something new and different.
I went to Poncelete Cheese Bar in Madrid a few weeks ago with a couple of friends. It was late to have lunch, early to have dinner (yes, the typical Spanish-lunch-time-mess) so we decided just to have a cheese board. The bar offers a cheese board which changes every day.
The waiter brought a wooden trolley with the cheeses selected for that day: Cabriola and Valdeon, from Spain; Bried de Meaux and Mimolette Affinage, from France; TeaHive, from Utha, EEUU; and Lathuy, from Germany. He explained to us each one, the origin, the process of curation, the distinctive features of each one and even the history bechind some of them. It was an amazing lesson about cheeses!
When the waiter brought the cheese board, he also brought a leaflet with the information about the cheeses we were having: the country, the name, the type of milk used, if it was pasteurised or not, the intensity of the taste, and, the most important part for me, the order in which we should try the cheeses – from the softest to the strongest – to appreciate their flavours and their particularities.
We found it really useful indeed as we were able to taste ecah cheese, knowing the name, where it came from and the their peculiarities. Furthermore, we were searching on Google about the region where they were producer, the producer, and so on. It was such a fun experience!
And you always find something new! We discovered Cabriola, a cheese from my region, Teruel, in Aragón, which was rather good! It has hints to herbs and mushrooms. It is such a quite earthy cheese, which made me feel a bit homesick, remembering that part of Aragón, so beautiful and natural as it is the Matarraña. It is a cheese easy to eat and paired with a Chardonnay, what I think was a good pairing.
Altough the real find was the TeaHive, from Utha. Absolutely amazing! Although I love strong cheese, and this one is not particulary strong as is made with pasteurized cows’milk, it was a surprise as is complex, with a particular palate so every bite is a discovery.
It is creamy, so it is easy to eat, and the rind is rubbed with a blend of black tea and bergamot oil. You can keep the hint of the orange blossom’s taste through the finish. I found it particularly pleasant and a taste with fit perfectly with this cow’s milk cheese.
So, highly recomended if you go to Madrid!
Enjoy it! Buen provecho!
Poncelet Cheese Bar Madrid