Back in January 2022, I wrote about a U.S. federal court ruling that Gruyere is a generic cheese term, which meant that, despite the protests of the Swiss cheese industry, U.S. producers could make Gruyere cheese and put the word "Gruyere" on the product label in the U.S. market. In March of this year, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld this ruling, stating: "Like a fine cheese, this case has matured and is ripe for our review. ... we conclude that the term 'GRUYERE' is generic as a matter of law and affirm the decision of the district court."
But the law can only tell us so much about the nature of cheese. What happens if a consumer tries both the Swiss and American versions of Gruyere cheese? I decided to find out by conducting a scientific taste test.
Given all that I've said on the matter, I can imagine people might doubt my own objectivity, so the taste tester was my son, who is home from college and has some time off before he starts his summer job. His qualifications for this task are strong:
1. He likes cheese.
2. He has been to Switzerland.
3. As noted, he had some time on his hands.
I had planned to do this taste test a while ago, but it's actually a bit of a challenge to find Gruyere cheese that is made in America. There are a couple places out in Wisconsin that make it, but I went out to Wisconsin last year -- not for this purpose! (Well, not exclusively for this purpose) -- and I couldn't track any down. So I've been looking around my local supermarkets, and until recently all I could find from Wisconsin was shredded Gruyere or something described as "smoked" Gruyere, neither of which seemed like they would work well in a comparison. But I checked again a couple days ago, and finally I had a good candidate, a Boar's Head Gruyere from Wisconsin that I could put up against a Murray's Gruyere from Switzerland:
(If you are wondering who this "Murray" is, I'm just assuming it's an old Swiss guy living in a small cabin up on a mountain, with a couple cows that he herds around. Checking into this further would ruin the image I have, so I'm not going to do it.)
Here's what my taste test set up looked like:
The crackers were bland Carr's table water crackers, because I didn't want them to interfere with the cheese flavors. It turns out my son decided to go cracker-less in his taste testing though, so you can ignore the crackers.
So what did my cheese connoisseur son think of these cheeses? I had him write down some notes:
It's a little hard to read so I'll translate the key parts.
Boar's Head:
- Bland
- Springy
- Like other store bought cheese
- Not flavorful
- Light, little consistency
- Overall rating: 3/10
Murray's:
- Stronger smell
- More pungent
- Soft to chew rather than springy
- Stronger flavor
- Overall rating: 8/10
Based on his assessments, I think there are two clear winners here: Swiss Gruyere and the free market! Clearly, consumers can distinguish good and bad cheeses, and will favor the higher quality cheese. In this case, that was the Swiss Gruyere, which a discerning American consumer, living in a society that, thankfully, allows for cheese choice, quickly recognized.