Norway’s international cheese sensation Norway’s most successful international cheese product, Jarlsberg, is deliciously creamy with an irresistibly nutty flavour. These nutty notes, combined with its soft, mild texture, not only make it a staple in every Norwegian household, but also internationally – from the US and Canada to Australia and the UK. By Sunniva Davies-Rommetveit | Photos: TINE Jarlsberg
Few cheeses combine looks and taste as well as Jarlsberg: its scrumptiously mild yet nutty taste merges seamlessly with its aesthetically pleasing, almost cartoonesque holes – known to cheese connoisseurs as ‘eyes’. It is this heady combination that has taken TINE’s Jarlsberg cheese on the 63-year adventure that has not only transformed it into an essential topping on Norwegian breakfast tables, but also seen it conquering international cheese markets. “From the US and the UK, to Australia and Sweden, TINE’s Jarlsberg has cap26 | Issue 124 | May 2019
tured imaginations globally,” explains international marketing manager at TINE, Silje Lindborg. “It is amazing that what was essentially an experiment in the 1950s resulted in such a recognisable and delicious taste, which millions have been unable to get enough of ever since.”
The father of Jarlsberg cheese The experiment Lindborg is referring to was one conducted in the 1950s by professor Ole Martin Ystgaard, considered the father of Jarlsberg cheese as we know it. Starting in 1956 and stretching over the next ten years, he conducted
the cheese-making experiments at the Agricultural University of Norway’s Dairy Institute. This painstaking research resulted in a cheese with a gorgeous, nutty flavour, along with salty hints, plus those famous holes – becoming known as Jarlsberg cheese. Though TINE’s recipe for creating the famous holes is a well-kept (and long sought-after) secret, the process of getting the delectable combination of mild, nutty taste and perfectly-formed holes comes from mixing lactic acid bacteria and Propionibacterium. Exactly how this works is kept under lock and key, with TINE having dedicated an entire factory in Trondheim to producing the culture that makes Jarlsberg cheese so unique. Since Jarlsberg cheese rolled onto the Norwegian culinary scene in the