Hokkaido master succeeds in creating a distinctly Japanese cheese
He calls it…Japacheese.
No, not really.
(Man, nothing can top “Ja-pan“…)
For Keisuke Yamada, the mountain cherry trees that rustle in the breeze on the Hokkaido farm where he works are more than just a beautiful sight. Back in the fall of 2002, they provided the answer he was looking for when he needed inspiration for producing a distinctively Japanese cheese.
“The idea was to spread the leaves on the ground and have the cheese ripen on top of them,” says the 28-year-old, whose cheese workshop occupies a corner of Kyodo Gakusha Shintoku Farm in Shintoku in the western part of Tokachi Plain. “That way, I thought, maybe some of the fragrance of cherry blossoms would seep into the cheese.”
He really called it–you’d better sit down for this one–Sakura.
Cliche naming conventions aside…I want to try it!