By Kate Forgach

Imagine you’re standing in the supermarket, holding a bottle of Cheez Whiz. Now imagine you’re in the deli section, sampling the latest variety of artisan or farmstead cheeses. One is “cheese food;” the other is “cheese!”

After years of mass-produced cheese, of eating sandwiches stuffed with orange squares, many Americans are drop kicking the Velveeta and checking out the boutique cheeses. As a result, the number of specialty cheeses being offered has dramatically increased over the last decade. A rising star among the hundreds of artisan cheeses is Fort Collins own MouCo Cheese Co. Their camembert and ColoRouge can be found in restaurants and grocery stores from Massachusetts to California.

Owners Birgit Halbreiter and her husband Robert Poland left cozy jobs at the New Belgium Brewing Company in 2000 to start the company. It was a well-calculated decision, based on the couple’s perfectly matched skill sets.

Halbreiter worked for one of the world’s largest soft-ripened cheese manufacturers in her native Germany. She migrated to Canada, where she met Poland at a beer convention and ultimately accepted a position as quality assurance manager with New Belgium Brewing Company. Poland worked for nine years as fermentation manager at the same brewery, a position that provided him with the perfect skills for cheese making and curing.

As added incentive, Halbreiter’s father, Franz, is a 47-year master-cheesemaker still living in Germany. He spent most of his life making the same styles of cheeses produced by MouCo. Halbreiter visits yearly to serve as consultant.

“We were sitting on a wealth of knowledge,” says Poland. “After so many years of doing the same thing at New Belgium, it was time to change. I was reading so many publications then about how hot the cheese industry is and it was in our skill set.”

The couple decided they were going to do it right, from start to finish: no artificial colorings, no additives and everything done by hand. The process begins with 100 percent antibiotic-free cow milk from local farmers. It ends with packaging materials made from recycled materials and is recycled within the company.

“We have one box that has traveled 100,000 miles,” says Poland. “Through recycling, we save 500 pounds of cardboard a week.”

First and foremost, however, are the cheeses. If you’ve ever eaten cheese in France, you know few American products can match their bold flavors. The difference is that French producers may use raw milk, while the FDA requires U.S. cheeses be made with pasteurized milk. I mention this because MouCo’s cheeses are as bold as any French cheese I enjoyed while living in that country.

The Camembert I sampled oozed creamily the moment it hit the plate. The fragrance matched its robust and nutty flavor.

The ColoRouge is a “red-smear” cheese that took home a gold medal from the 2004 American Cheese Society Conference. It’s a natural rind cheese, mostly redish-orange with a slight white hazing. Once sliced, its soft and creamy interior reveals a spicy flavor that becomes more complex the longer it is savored.

Matched with a true French baguette from Whole Foods, MouCo’s handiwork sent me to heaven. The only thing that could have made this gustatory experience even better would have been a perfectly paired French wine. Unfortunately, it was mid-morning and I wasn’t in France. C’est dommage.

MouCo Cheese Company 1401 Duff Drive #300, 498-0107. www.mouco.com