What we do
IMPORTING AND WHOLESALE
Essex St. Cheese imports a handful of iconic European cheeses. We work directly with cheesemakers and agers to select consistently flavorful wheels and ship them to New York. We wholesale them across the USA, to great cheese shops from California to Maine, Florida to Washington.
EDUCATION
We teach about cheese whenever we can in the belief that cheesemongers who know more about their cheese—how to care for it, how to serve it, the story behind it—serve their customers better and, in the end, sell more cheese. Plus it’s just way more fun to come to work every day when you’re connected to cheese’s deep well of history. One of the great things about only importing a handful of cheeses is the know about each of them intimately. We've visited the makers and agers dozens of times. When we visit your shop we’ll set aside time to teach your cheesemongers. If we can teach a class directly to your customers, too, we’d love it.
INTERNSHIPS
Betty and Martin Koster of L'amuse in The Netherlands host one or two internships per year. The intern will work in the processes of selecting, aging and exporting, and spend time as a Dutch cheesemonger. It is an unpaid, educational internship, though accommodations and travel within Holland are included.
Quéseria 1605 in Spain hosts one or two internships per year. This internship starts at the farm, Finca Sierra La Solana in La Mancha, where the intern will care for the animals, make cheese, and prepare orders for shipment. The intern will then move to spend a few days working with José-Luis Martin, master affineur and selector, in Madrid at his cheese bar, Qava. It is an unpaid educational internship. Travel to and within Spain included, as well as accomodations.
EMBEDDING
We teach your mongers formally, but we love to work directly with you behind the counter. Our embedding program places one of us at your disposal, working full shifts alongside your crew, for up to several days at a time. During that time we audit your case and recommend improvements. We teach your crew about cheese in the moment: how to care for it, how to sell it. And not just our cheese. We’ve worked at great cheese counters across America and in Europe and we’ve picked up lots of tips about other cheeses that we share. We pay our own way, of course. Embeds are limited so let us know you’re interested and we’ll work with you to schedule one.
Sean Hartwig of Zingerman’s, Malachy James formerly of Di Bruno Bros and John Fancey of Bi Rite Market, visiting the source by traveling with us to Terschelling.
TRAVEL
We want every one of our buyers and mongers to visit our cheesemakers and agers. That’s one of the reasons we keep our selection limited—so you can know all of it, intimately. Visiting the source is the best way to learn what the cheese is all about. We host a trip or two every year. Drop a note to us and we’ll work to get you on an upcoming journey.