It was one of the most impressive encounters of those intense months back in 2008, during the research for my first book on cheese, Erlebnis Käse und Wein. Almost 13,000 kilometres, to visit more than 120 cheese producers all over Germany, and then Sabine and Larry Arango and their Chäschuchi in Gersbach. Very remote. Fresh, soft and semi-hard cheeses in all kinds of variations, quark and yogurt, and I liked all of it – but Silberdistel, that was… wow. Awesome. In a class of its own.

Back then Larry Arango presented me that cheese like a drug dealer showing his illegitimate crack. I told him how much I loved it, its white bloom sheathed with a fine, reddish mesh, its flavour lasting forever, and that I hadn’t encountered anything like it so far on my research. Only to hear from him that it was a kind of one-off, that it wouldn’t pay off to make this on a regular basis.

I felt so excited that when I left I had to stop at a Konditorei and eat a piece of Black Forest Gateau, and ponder. I came to the conclusion (I’m a hopeless optimist): „Even if those cheeses don’t pay off now – one day they will.“

And then – I never heard from them again. Not a peep from Gersbach. Until this May, eleven years later, out of the blue, Isabel, the Arango’s daughter contacted me. She was to be in Berlin soon, could she possibly bring some cheese for me to taste?

Possibly? Absolutely! Amongst that selection: a large Silberdistel. Wow. Awesome. Still in a class of its own. Even better: Isabel, together with her partner Matthias (and hopefully her parents!), and a lot of Silberdistel will be joining us for Cheese Berlin in November. Perhaps my optimism is not such a hopeless case.