More Awards for the Dairy -13 in the Past Three Years

For the third year in a row Maui's Surfing Goat Dairy has won top honors in the National Cheese Competition. The “PING PONG BALLS”, fresh Chevre balls ripening in olive oil with garlic, won a 2nd Place Award in the category “Marinated Cheeses” and the“OYSTER”, a fresh Chevre with Gourmet Smoked Oysters, won a 3rd Place Award in the category “Cheese Spreads”.These two awards at the American Cheese Society National competition held last weekend in Portland, Oregon, brings their total count of awards to 13 for 13 different cheeses now.157 dairies from around the US and Canada were competing in 22 cheese categories at this years event, making winning the awards against many other famous dairies significant to this small Maui, Hawaii based farm. All 941 cheese entries (a new record) were judged in a blind tasting by 24 judges.
The American Cheese Society is an active, not for profit trade organization that encourages the understanding, appreciation, and promotion of farmstead and natural specialty cheeses produced in the Americas and Canada. Unlike other cheese competitions, where cheeses are judged only on their technical merits, the American Cheese Society's goal is to give positive recognition to those cheeses that are of the highest quality in their aesthetic evaluation (i.e. flavor, aroma, and texture), as well as their technical evaluation. As a result, the highest quality cheeses are those that the Society feels deserve the recognition of an American Cheese Society award.“”It's quite an honor to win any award at The American Cheese Society competition, and for there years in a row is even a greater testament to the quality cheeses we are producing here at our Dairy on Maui”, says Thomas Kafsack, Surfing Goat Dairy's owner,”now already half of our cheeses have won a National Award which is awesome for such a small young dairy.”“Winning two awards again this year is further proof that we are not only creating cheeses that please our many local and mainland customers but also these 24 cheese professionals in such a big competition”, ads Eva Kafsack, owner and master cheese maker, “with this success as background we will lobbying the American Cheese Society even more to host a future Annual Convention and Cheese Competition here on Maui.”

from 8/2/06