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10 The Cheese Guide Emmi Roth® is expanding with the acquisition of Great Lakes Cheese's blue cheese plant in Seymour, Wisconsin. Emmi Roth is known for award-winning Wisconsin-made blue cheeses including Roth Buttermilk Blue®, a creamy raw milk blue cheese, Roth Buttermilk Blue Affinée, an aged version of Buttermilk Blue, and Roth Moody Blue®, a small-batch smoky blue cheese. With the purchase of the Great Lakes Cheese plant, Emmi Roth will not only be able to expand its blue cheese production, but also increase its capabilities to develop new blue cheese products and packaging solutions. "We believe in the blue cheese category and see this as an opportunity to strengthen our position in the market," said Tim Omer, Emmi Roth President and Managing Director. "This acquisition gives us access to a talented group of cheesemakers and provides us with additional resources to expand our current production and develop new blue cheese products for our customers." Emmi Roth Acquires Great Lakes Cheese's Seymour Plant Emmi Roth will assume ownership of Great Lakes Cheese's Seymour factory, related land, productions facility and equipment on February 28, 2019. "We know Emmi Roth to be as passionate about cheese and as committed to its employees as we are," said John Epprecht, Vice President, Great Lakes Cheese. "They are well positioned to guide Seymour's business and its dedicated workforce into the next stage of growth." Great Lakes Cheese's Seymour plant currently employs 50 people; Emmi Roth will offer continued employment to all employees at the Seymour location. "We look forward to welcoming the employees at Great Lakes Cheese into our family of award-winning cheesemakers," said Omer. This acquisition will grow Emmi Roth to four locations in Wisconsin, also including Monroe, Platteville and Fitchburg, employing nearly 300 people. For more information visit www.emmiroth.com. BY GREG GONZALES Even though we don't believe in Santa Claus past a certain age, most of us can find plenty of magic in holiday celebrations with friends, coworkers and family. There's magic in the time we finally get to spend together exchanging stories, it's in the laughing and crying and generosity – and it's in the food we share together, especially the right cheeseboards. Done properly, the right cheeseboard can make a statement at any gathering, become the topic of next year's conversation, and your customers can do just that if your store provides them the tools, boards, foods and guidance to get there. However, to even get started, a great cheeseboard requires the right tools for form and function. It's important to have the right knife for the right cheeses – like a skeleton knife for soft cheeses like brie, camembert or Roth Monroe, a limited-production cheese that would stick to a normal blade. To avoid the sticking, a skeleton-style knife like Swissmar's Lux Cheese Knife will do the trick, featuring holes in the blade to prevent the cheese from sticking, forged construction for strength and a forked tip for serving, with an elegant black Micarta handle. Boska offers an alternative to skeleton blades from its Pro Collection called the Brie Knife Monaco, which doesn't feature holes in the blade like other soft- cheese knives but instead has a long, thin blade, made from a single Build A Cheeseboard And They Will Come piece of stainless steel. For a go-to knife to use for most cheeses, Swissmar also offers a Universal Cheese Knife in stainless steel. For harder cheeses, a cheese plane will come in handy and a parmesan knife for even harder cheeses, because they crumble and it's often better to break them up instead of slicing them into triangles. Boska offers the Parmesan Knife Monaco in its Pro Collection, with a pointed oval blade and a single-steel construction for control and durability while breaking up those hard cheeses. Another crucial component that literally supports the entire cheeseboard is the board itself – both visually and physically, whether it's wood or marble or otherwise. One of the high-quality wood options is the Cheese Board Friends XL from Boska, a large, round European oak board that's practical for multiple cheeses and pairings with plenty of room for cutting. A little hand soap and a rub with olive oil is all that's needed to maintain it after use. And in addition to wood and marble, cheeseboards come in slate, like Brooklyn Slate Co.'s Slate Cheese Board, available in four sizes, in red or black, sourced from the company's family slate quarry in upstate New York, packaged in a burlap bag with soapstone chalk that allows users to write on the board. The option of writing on the board could let party hosts label cheeses or draw fun designs to make the spread even more memorable.

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