"Switzerland" news and stories

People associate Swiss cheese with Emmentaler, a cheese covered in holes. Tomme Fleurette, my favorite Swiss cheese, defies the image of the stereotypical Swiss cheese. Firstly, it has a soft delicate texture without the holes characteristic of Emmentaler. Its incredibly rich smooth creamy texture tastes fresh and milky. Its soft paste slowly melts on your palate and leaves you wanting more.

Tomme Fleurette is a raw cow's milk cheese modeled after Tomme Vaudoise. Both cheeses come from the canton of Vaud . Tomme Fleurette is handmade by Michel Beroud in the town of Rougement. Beroud ages the cheese in damp ripening caves. The damp caves allow the cheese to maintain a high level of moisture and to develop its natural pristine rind.

All you need is a warm fresh piece of whole grain bread to accompany this cheese. You can also enjoy Tomme Fleurette with a rose hip jam. Formaggio Kitchen recommends its exquisite rose hip jam from the Franche-Comté. Suggestions on where to purchase this cheese can be found after the jump.

• Do plants have rights? Yes, if Switzerland has anything to say about it
• A sweet BioBag discovery
• Some organic food options for your furry friends
• Brits throw about about 1/3 of all their food
• Want to volunteer on an organic farm? Here's how
• Vegan bodybuilding: yes, it exists
• More reasons to be wary of seafood (or to go vegetarian)
• Bizarre food news: China grows huge food in outer space; ready-to-eat bugs
• Is your twice-a-day cheeseburger habit contributing to climate change?
• Good news for eco-friendly coffee growers
• Apples getting a little soft? Here's how to use them up
• What's your favorite ketchup company doing to stay green?
• Grow your food in a box

If you are Marilyn Manson and you decide to launch a line of absinthe, what do you call it?

Why, Mansinthe, of course.

The drink is made in Switzerland, and, despite the U.S.'s recent lift on the absinthe ban that has been in place for 80 years, is not yet legal in America.

Epicurious recently conducted a taste test of the drink, and the results were less than desirable. Several tasters described Mansinthe as "oily," one called its color "pale and green in color, like the fourth horse of the Apocalypse."

Some eloquently compared the aroma to "sewage" or "swamp mud." And the overall responses in the test's "flavor" category were so hilarious, I had to print them here, word for word:

"Main flavor is just plain."
"Yuck. Sour + bitter"
"If you don't smell it, the taste is good. A little woodsy, but not too much"
"Holy sh*t, is this poison?"

So, there you have it, folks. Everyone thought it reeked of bathroom waste and three out of the four tasters thought it tasted like crap. Drink at your own risk...preferably while brooding and listening to "The Dope Show" at full volume.

Source

"Oh no! We're running out of intestines!" That's basically what the Swiss Meat Association is saying. The favorite sausage of Switzerland, the cervelat, is encased in cow's intestines, preferably from Brazilian cows. And though Switzerland is not part of the EU, the country follows those rules when it comes to trade and food regulations. Turns out the EU has curbed imports of Brazilian cows/parts due to BSE (mad cow) fears.

Supplies of the intestines used to make the Swiss delicacy are projected to run out in the summer, just when football (soccer) fans from all over Europe arrive for the Euro 2008 Championship. A "Task Force Cervelat" has been put together with scientists, bureaucrats, and industry insiders in order to try to solve the problem. Everyone agrees it will take some time for the EU regulators to make any changes. The task force is even looking into getting cow intestines from other sources, though no one wants that.

Generally, about 160 million cervelat sausages get eaten in Switzerland each year. Unfortunately, if the Task Force Cervelat doesn't come up with any answers, that number may be reduced this year. What will they eat at football games?

[Via ColdMud.com]

Source

Since most of us love chocolate (some like all kinds of chocolate), it would be good to know why we're so addicted to the stuff. Could it be ... bacteria?

Nestle paid for a study in Switzerland that showed that, while everyone has various microbes in their stomachs and intestines, people who crave chocolate seem to have different types of microbes than other people. The study actually took a while to complete because they couldn't find 11 men who didn't like chocolate!

I'm not sure what's more interesting: the fact that people who love chocolate have different types of bacteria in their body, or the fact that we all have trillions of bacteria in our bodies.