Culture Cheese Mag: Make Room in the Case for Indie Cheese
WHAT IS A CHEESE THAT ISN'T MASS-PRODUCED, YET DOESN'T FEEL QUITE ARTISAN?
By Felice Thorpe
Like indie music and films, the indie cheese category is about independence and a defiant or necessary DIY spirit. Here, cheesemakers turn their backs on the mass market and focus instead on crafting cheeses with an unfiltered spark. This category name occurred to me when I was working with a cheese brand that felt "artisan," but that word felt too broad to describe it. Paradoxically, why not have a "standard" name for this micro category?
You could fit everything I know about cheese history into a walnut shell, but I think indie cheesemaking dates back to when food was about experimentation. This scene isn't just about cheese; it's about creating a mood that reflects a place, a season, or availability. Indie is a nebulous genre. Independently funded, intentionally lo-fi. Nirvana, The Cure, R.E.M. -these bands were once considered indie. Laura Chenel was once an indie cheesemaker. Now, women like Sophie Hauville with Carmel Valley Creamery make small-batch cheeses. I consider them both artisan brands, but the difference between them lies in their ethos. Indie cheesemaking is often about pushing boundaries and freedom of expression with a spirit that favors trial and error. On the other hand, artisanal cheesemaking is rooted in tradition and technique. While both can prioritize local ingredients and small-batch production, artisan cheesemakers emphasize the authenticity of the process and consistency; indie cheesemakers embrace a lack of restrictions, partially because they are independently funded. They are protecting a process from conformity, which can be uncomfortable-but that. too, is part of the process.
I am impressed with the craftsmanship and quality of big artisan brands because defects can't be hidden. If you want to test your skills, try making cheese on a gigantic scale. Thanks to that consistency, millions of Americans buy these products every day, knowing exactly what they're getting.
Some indie brands are this way by choice and some by circumstance, Every company has a different path. Either way, with indie cheesemaking, the emphasis on convenient resources, such as sourcing nearby milk, is central. By prioritizing ingredients and hands-on techniques, they are able to produce flavors that would be difficult to consistently mass replicate. Market dominance is not the goal. Like an indie movie that has a homemade, less polished authenticity for key customer demographics, indie cheese has made me gasp in wonder (and sometimes surreptitiously spit into a napkin). There is an idealized concept of indie cheese that is a pie-in-the-sky version of handmade, but the value of this non-homogenous category could not be clearer.
The indie cheese scene is flourishing: a bootstrapped category that stretches from farmers' markets to artisanal
"The indie cheese scene is flourishing: a bootstrapped category that stretches farmers' markets to artisanal shops."
shops. Typically, without financial muscle, they depend on consumers who appreciate human variability and dig the look of real life. (Like Kurt Cobain, unapologetically dressed in a cozy, shrunken sweater.) Larger companies are not necessarily innovating, unless you count line extensions, and I believe creativity is the greatest lever for growth. We need this serappy category, which I would describe as "this stuff ain't consistent every time, but it's worth every penny." In any industry-art, music, technology, food, wine-the most interesting things are happening on the fringes.