Monthly Recap: February 2024

February may be the shortest month of the year, but this month certainly wasn't short on cheese information and education! We covered a variety of cheesy topics and even launched some new products. Here's a quick recap of everything we discussed this month:

Blue cheese might be the most polarizing cheese in your case, but we think it's just misunderstood and under-appreciated. Use this list of tips to properly care for, display, and cut your blue cheeses to keep them looking and tasting as appetizing as possible for your mold-loving customers and blue cheese skeptics alike. 

It's true - good cheese isn't cheap. But do you know why, and more importantly, can you effectively convey that information to your customers? Read our blog post that breaks down a cheese's journey from farm to cave to boat to cheese shop, and helps foster a better understanding of and appreciation for cheese that is absolutely worth the price tag. 

New Product Alert! If the cheese signs in your case are a major source of stress for you, let us help. We're now offering custom cheese case signs that are sleek, sturdy, and most importantly, don't require you to spend hours cutting and laminating them. Plus - new sign holders that won't rust or poke into your cheese! Learn more by reading this post and email wholesale@formaticum.com with any questions or inquiries.   

What is rennet, and what does it have to do with nursery rhymes? Check out this blog post that explains why rennet is so important to the cheesemaking process, and how to discuss rennet with your customers to correct any misinformation they may have learned on the internet.   

And finally, it's a Leap Year, so it's time to help your customers Leap into something new the next time they visit your counter. This blog post outlines some of the most popular cheeses that customers ask for, and what you could suggest if they want to try something new. And remember to suggest Formaticum Cheese Storage Bags & Sheets so their new favorite cheese stays fresh and healthy in their fridge!

Thanks for joining us this month! Check back in March for more service tips, cheese facts & history, wrapping tutorials, and so much more. And don't forget to follow us on FacebookInstagramTikTok, and Youtube.  If you have any questions or want to suggest a topic for us to cover in the future, please email emilia@formaticum.com.


Help Your Customers Leap Into Something New This Year!

This year is a Leap Year, meaning there is one extra day in February to sell cheese! If your customers are stuck in the same routine, week after week, buying the same quarter pound of the same cheese, it's time to help them Leap into something new for 2024. 

Cheesemongers are the customers' tour guide through the cheese case! We've put together a list of some popular cheeses that could potentially be a gateway for your customer to try something similar that can help expand their palate and horizons. 

If they like Humboldt Fog, offer them a taste of ash-ripened chèvre like Valençay, Selles-sur-Cher, or Blakesville Creamery Linedeline. 

If they like Midnight Moon, have them taste Brabander or OG Ghoast. 

If they like Manchego, suggest Ossau Iraty, Pecorino Sardo, Zamorano, or a raw milk farmhouse Manchego. 

If they like Delice de Bourgogne, recommend Brillat-Savarin, St. Stephen, or Nettle Meadow Kunik. 

If they like fresh chèvre, try offering an aged goat cheese like Bucheron, Leonora, or Blakesville Creamery Lake Effect.  

If they like block cheddar, suggest a raw milk block cheddar like Shelburne Farms Cheddar, or even a clothbound cheddar like Montgomery's Cheddar or Cabot Clothbound. 

If they like Gruyère, suggest Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Comté, or Beaufort. 

If they like Jarlsberg, have them taste the original Swiss cheese - authentic Emmentaler AOP. 

If they like Beemster, offer a sample of L'Amuse Gouda, Jake's Aged Gouda, or OG Kristal. 

If they like Stilton, offer Stichelton, Shropshire Blue, or Bayley Hazen Blue. 

If they like Roquefort, try Fourme d'Ambert or Valdeon. 

If they like Piave, suggest Sbrinz, KM 39, or Montasio. 

Once you've successfully led your customer to their new favorite cheese, don't forget that you are still their cheese educator! Teach them how to properly care for their cheese that they spent so much time and effort selecting. Formaticum One-Ply paper is perfect for most styles of cheese and will keep it healthy in your customer's fridge so that the flavor stays as fresh as the day they tasted it in the shop. You can also recommend that they purchase a package of Formaticum Reusable Cheese Bags so that they always have professional cheese storage at their fingertips in the future. 


The Rennet Question

With the internet's recent discovery that real Parmigiano Reggiano is made with rennet and is therefore not suitable for vegetarians, cheesemongers everywhere are now fielding questions from customers in search of vegetarian-friendly cheese. Aside from reminding them of the classic nursery rhyme about Little Miss Muffett eating her curds and whey, here are some ways to streamline your rennet-based sales interactions. 

First, it's helpful to dispel any internet-derived rumors about rennet by explaining the basics to your customer. For anyone who needs a refresher: coagulation is the first step of cheesemaking, separating the solids (curds) from the liquid (whey) so that the solids can be manipulated in different ways, eventually resulting in cheese. Some cheeses are lactic- or acid-coagulated, meaning that the action is caused by lactic acid bacteria present in the milk. But many cheeses, including most hard or aged cheeses, are made with rennet. Rennet-coagulated cheeses use animal (or "traditional"), microbial, or vegetable-based rennet. 

Traditional rennet is derived from the 4th stomach, or abomasum, of a young ruminant animal.  Vegetable-based rennet can be derived from plant-based sources like thistle, and microbial rennet is grown in a lab using live organisms like mold, yeast, or fungi.

Each version has benefits - while traditional rennet is better for longer-aged cheeses, microbial rennet is suitable for vegetarians, and is also cheaper to produce, which decreases the cost of cheesemaking. Thistle rennet is more common in torta-style cheeses from Spain and Portugal, and lends an herbaceous flavor to the cheese. Some cheesemakers use combinations of different types of rennet to achieve their desired texture and flavor. 

It's also helpful to have a list on hand that contains all the vegetarian-friendly cheeses available in your case. It's easy to reference a list when a customer inquires, instead of frantically Googling different cheeses or having to check every sign in the case. You can add to the list as time goes on for a more comprehensive reference for the mongers working the counter. 

You can also add this bit of information to your case signs along with the standard information about producer, milk type, and heat treatment. For more information about custom cheese case signs, email wholesale@formaticum.com.

Of course, there is no sales technique more effective than sampling. The USA produces the highest number of vegetarian rennet cheeses in the world, second only to Portugal, so these cheeses are usually a safe bet. You might even introduce your customer to their new favorite cheese! 

Once you've cut your customer's cheese, be sure to wrap it in Formaticum professional cheese paper to preserve the flavor and keep it healthy in the fridge. 


New Product: Custom Cheese Case Signs

We all know how important signs are when it comes to navigating a cheese case - customers can feel overwhelmed at a large counter, adrift in a sea of cheese they may have never even heard of before. Cheese signs help demystify the intimidating wall of curd and put your customers more at ease. A familiar country flag, a few tasting notes, or even a funny joke in a brief description may catch a customer's eye and encourage them to interact with their monger instead of heading straight for the grab and go case. 

But cheese signs can be time consuming, expensive, and labor intensive - cheese prices fluctuate, not everyone has great hand writing, and if you're lucky enough to have a graphic designer on hand, chances are they won't be thrilled about the prospect of laminating and meticulously cutting hundreds of cheese signs that will likely need to be printed again in the next few months with a new price anyway. And where do those pesky sign holders keep disappearing to?!

If these problems sound all too familiar, we would like to present you with a solution in the form of our newest program: Custom Cheese Case Signs! Let us handle the signs so that you can focus on handling the cheese. Customize your signs with any information you want - producer, country flag of origin, heat treatment, rennet type…the options are limitless. You can choose from a variety of design templates, or create your own, and even use your own font! Start with blank signs for each milk type, or use your core cheeses and holiday favorites - the signs are completely customizable for your needs. 

These signs are made of sturdy plastic, about the thickness of a credit card, that won't be affected by high humidity like laminated paper signs. You can also use a black marker to conveniently and easily change the price of the cheese whenever necessary. We also offer sleek and sturdy sign holders that firmly hold the sign upright without rusting or poking into the cheese itself. 

For more information about our custom sign program, email wholesale@formaticum.com! 


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Monthly Recap: February 2024

Help Your Customers Leap Into Something New This Year!

The Rennet Question


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