Cheese Please! Edam

Today I will be featuring Edam by King's Choice.
The Facts:

• semi firm
• pale yellow, creamy color
• aged 6 months
• made in Edam, Holland
• Package Description: "Smooth, mellow and slightly tangy"
• compliments single pit fruits, buttery crackers, Rieslings
• cows milk cheese
• Lower in fat than most cheese, 28% fat

What we thought:
While wandering around the cheese section of the deli, smelling and reading, pressing my thumb into the varieties of packaging, I was looking for an Edam in particular. The last cheese I tasted, Mimolette (see Cheese Please! Mimolette, 10/11/10 post) was compared to an Edam, so I thought that would be a good one to try.
We let it come to room temperature and sliced several slices, removing the wax coating. There was a very thin rind under the red paraffin wax about the thickness of tissue paper, dark gold in color. The cheese has a soft scent, slightly floral or fruity.
The taste was more mild than the Mimolette. Less sharp, more salty and slightly more buttery. The texture wasn't great. It was the least appealing thing about the cheese. It was kind of chewy, and dry, sort of rhind-y. The flavor was slightly delayed, you had to chew it for a while, let your saliva bring out the slight tang and the salt. You could taste a floral/fruity note in the back of the tongue as you exhaled, similar to how it smelled. I feel like I really had to concentrate to actually get a flavor from this cheese. I give it a 2 on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the best) I like a stinky sharp cheese, or a good salty goat cheese and this cheese was really mild, combined with the texture made me feel like I was eating tasteless rubber. I had it on a plain Club Cracker and the cracker overwhelmed the flavor of the cheese.

Do you have a favorite cheese? Please pass it on as a suggestion in a comment. We love to taste new cheeses!