The Most Expensive Cheese In America Can Be Found In The Pacific Northwest

For many cheese fanciers, officially known as turophiles, cheese is more than an occasional nibble or melted cheese-toast thing. As a devoted curd-head myself, I fully believe that excellent cheese is essential to a life well-lived. There's practically no cheese too pricey for the occasional self-treating. That's why the most expensive cheese in America somehow seems reasonable, even at a palate-popping $80 per pound. 

That top-dollar honor goes to a chèvre goat cheese with an irresistibly wispy name: Up in Smoke. It comes not from Wisconsin, America's Dairyland with 3.5 billion pounds of cheese churned out every year. This farmstead cheese is instead a product of Rivers Edge Chèvre in the Pacific Northwest town of Logsden, Oregon. The farmstead designation indicates that the milk and the goats come from the same farm. In this case, it's a small, sustainable family farm in the Central Oregon Coast Range.

Here are a few reasons to satisfy your urge to splurge. First, there's no need to trek all the way to Oregon for an Up in Smoke experience. Save your money for the cheese. It's also not necessary to purchase an entire pound of the smoky lusciousness, as it's available online via Murray's Cheese, sold in four-ounce wheel portions, requiring only $20 for one-quarter pound of extravagance. What you get in exchange is a fresh, pasteurized, hand-formed chèvre smoked in alder and hickory, then cloaked in onsite maple leaves, which are also smoked by the same wood and then spritzed with bourbon.

If leaf-wrapped cheese sounds vaguely familiar, perhaps you've come across Banon chèvre from France, an exclusive cheese protected by the French AOC, a strict standard indicating its designation of origin. Similar to Up in Smoke, the French Banon cheese is made from goat's milk but is wrapped in chestnut leaves rather than maple leaves. It's also a continent away, so again, spare yourself that journey and invest in America's priciest and arguably most intriguing cheese.

It's worth mentioning that hundreds of cheesemakers do their magic on American soil, and it can be difficult to track changing prices and new iterations of family-farm offerings. Also, final products are sometimes packaged in creative ways, including by varying wheel portions with undisclosed weights, making it challenging to precisely determine which carries the highest price tag per pound. But it's pretty safe to say that Up in Smoke rises above the others. 

Up in Smoke is a natural for soft cheese balls and spreading over fresh-baked breads, subtly imparting its unmistakable woodsy taste and aroma. Try using various flatbreads or Swedish-style Wasa crispbread as a sturdy base, providing a contrasting crunch to the smooth, creamy cheese. Pile on some smashed avocados, tomatoes, asparagus spears, or other veggies. This chèvre substitutes easily into your favorite goat cheese appetizers, serves as a warm base for savory sauces, tucks comfortably into pastries, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, and brings a woodfire smokiness to homemade flatbread pizzas.