By Janet Fletcher

They taste like cheesecake without the sugar, so what’s not to like?

The world’s triple-crème cheeses—we’ll use the French spelling—seduce most tasters with a velvety smoothness and sour-cream finish. No matter how fat-phobic America gets, consumers never lose their passion for these luscious cream-enriched cheeses. Stocking the best and knowing how to sell them can enliven your bottom line.

By the French definition, a triple-crème cheese contains a minimum of 75 percent fat in its dry matter. That doesn’t mean the cheese is 75 percent fat, as some consumers believe. A fresh, high-moisture cheese like Brillat-Savarin could be half water, so its fat content by weight might be only 37 percent. Not that triple crèmes are diet cheeses. But an ounce of Explorateur is no more decadent than an ounce of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It just tastes that way.

Ripening from the Outside In
Most triple crèmes are minimally aged bloomy-rind cheeses that ripen from the outside in. To produce the buttery richness, cheesemakers typically add cream to the milk before curdling it. Andante Dairy, a tiny artisan producer in California’s Sonoma County, takes a different approach. Cheesemaker Soyoung Scanlan enriches her triple crèmes with crème fraîche, not cream, by folding the crème fraîche by hand into already formed curds.

Triple crèmes can run the cheese gamut. Some have blue veining, such as Germany’s Cambozola and Montagnolo. Others are 100 percent goat’s milk, like the Coach Farm triple crème from upstate New York. Triple crèmes can even, though rare, have a washed rind, as exemplified by Red Hawk from California’s Cowgirl Creamery.

Textures can range from fluffy to buttery. The flavor may be mild, even bland, or more developed, with the acidic tang of cultured cream. Triple crèmes are often salty but never strong, making them good introductory selections for the novice cheese fan.

A triple crème can be the correct answer to a variety of customer needs. For the shopper looking to assemble a balanced cheese tray, a triple crème provides a counterpoint to firmer and more piquant aged cheeses. A single, perfectly ripened triple crème accompanied by seasonal berries, stone fruits, pears or dried fruit makes a sumptuous dessert. A customer looking for a cheese to complement Champagne or sparkling wine will find that triple crèmes always work, an example of the pleasure found in textural contrasts.

“To me, it’s a celebratory cheese,” says retailer Leonard Born of Leonard’s 2001 in San Francisco. Born typically stocks about a half-dozen choices, including Brillat-Savarin, Pierre-Robert, Bellétoile and King Island Seal Bay.

If space is tight, five or six selections are plenty to provide a range of triple-crème price points and flavor options. A strategic assortment might include Explorateur, because customers know it and ask for it; another French classic such as Brillat-Savarin or Pierre-Robert; a blue such as Cambozola; the goat’s milk triple crème from Coach Farm; and the Red Hawk or Seal Bay for the shopper looking for a new taste experience.

At The Cheese Shop in Concord, Mass., Owner Peter Lovis carries the approachable Cambozola and Montagnolo for customers who say they want a creamy, mild blue. But he also sells them to customers who say they don’t. “It’s that classic ‘I don’t like blue cheese,’ and I say, ‘Let me give you a taste of this,’” says the merchant.

Young and Fresh With few exceptions, triple crèmes are young, fresh, pasteurized-milk cheeses, rarely aged more than three to four weeks before release. Under proper conditions, they will continue to ripen, becoming creamier and less chalky. Cheese counter employees should be trained to recognize the stages of maturity in an uncut triple crème so they can steer customers to cheeses that need to move.

Benjamin Robling, a cheese buyer for Di Bruno Bros., a Philadelphia retailer, says that air-freighted triple crèmes occasionally arrive underripe and need to be nursed along at store level. Refrigerate them in a container with a lot of perforation, advises Robling, so they can breathe. They should be monitored to make sure they are neither drying out nor getting moisture on their bloomy rind.

“The rind is a good indication (of maturity),” says Robling. He likes to see some coloration developing on the rind, a signal that the cheese is continuing to mature. The touch test also reveals a lot, since most of these cheeses soften from the outside in. “Give it a delicate prod and look for it not to spring back,” says Robling. “If there’s resistance, it’s too young.”

As triple crèmes approach over-ripeness, the rind will start to sink and separate from the cheese. Like Brie and other bloomy-rind cheeses, they can develop ammoniated smells. When ultra-ripe, they may run when cut, challenging staffers to keep the contents in the rind. At Di Bruno Bros., the clerks place a piece of refrigerated marble against the cut side.

Robling says fruit preserves, chutneys and condiments, such as fig balsamic, are natural cross sellers with triple crèmes. Brandied fruit, Italian amarena cherries in syrup, or prunes in Armagnac also flatter these silky dessert cheeses. Good bread—unnecessary with hard cheeses such as Cheddar or Dry Jack—is essential with the unctuous, spreadable triple crèmes. Point customers to a non-sour baguette, plain country-style loaf or walnut bread, or to an unseeded cracker.

Janet Fletcher is a staff food writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of The Cheese Course.