Briette Creamy & Blue — the Beginner’s Blue, in a Fresh Pack

The same fresh-pack trick as its mild sibling, with a whisper of blue culture folded in. Briette Creamy & Blue is Champignon’s answer to the shopper who wants to like blue cheese but doesn’t want a fight: a 4.4-ounce soft-ripened wheel, always creamy, with what the maker calls “just a hint of blue.” Launched in the US in early 2021 alongside Creamy & Mild and Creamy & Buttery Red.

The story

Briette was Champignon North America’s 2021 bet on the hesitant American cheese buyer — the one interested in specialty cheese who “doesn’t consider themselves cheese experts,” as the launch coverage put it. The line’s signature is the individual fresh pack: each 125-gram wheel is ripened to perfection at the Lauben dairy in the Allgäu, then sealed so it stays at exactly the right creaminess for its whole shelf life, with a very mild bloomy rind.

The Blue is the line’s training-wheels blue. Champignon’s official description is one sentence long — “An always creamy soft-ripened cheese with just a hint of blue” — and Foodland’s shelf copy fills in the picture: “White, edible exterior and yellow-white, soft interior with very light striations of blue mold.” The launch announcement called it “a truly beginner blue experience.” Like its siblings it’s lactose-free, made with microbial rennet, and carries the wedge-window box with a QR code to thisisfinecheese.com.

What it tastes like

Briette Mild’s sweet, milky calm with a blue shadow. The creaminess dominates — soft, rich, buttery — and the blue arrives as a faint savory depth and the lightest veining rather than a bite. If Cambozola is the wedge that converts blue skeptics, this is the one that converts people who won’t even pick up Cambozola.

Flavor profile: intensity low-medium · creaminess high · blue bite faint, savory · milkiness sweet
Aging: ripened to perfection, then sealed — consistent by design · Texture: soft-ripened, evenly creamy, very light blue striations

How to serve it

Room temperature, out of the pack, on the board next to its Mild sibling — the two together make a tidy tasting flight for guests. Honey and walnuts flatter the faint blue; fig jam works too. It’s mild enough for a sandwich, where a stronger blue would take over.

Drink with it: A wheat beer (Hefeweizen) or an off-dry Riesling — gentle sweetness alongside gentle blue. For beer lovers working up the ladder, this is the blue to drink a Helles with.

Finding it in America

Same pipeline as the Mild: Champignon North America (Englewood Cliffs, NJ) imports, GFI Foods distributes wholesale. Foodland lists the 4.4 oz wheel at $5.49, Gourmet Dash at $6.98 — check the specialty case wherever Champignon products are stocked. If your store carries one Briette, it usually carries all three.