I purchase sliced cheese from time to time to eat with sandwiches or crackers. My loyalty to white American cheese is strong. The connoisseur might cringe at my appreciation for the vulgar cheese, but that doesn’t bother me.
Recently my intake of sliced cheese has increased, and I have become somewhat more adventurous at the deli. This development was caused by two things:
1. In December (2008) at a Christmas party I had a conversation with a friend that made me aware of the white American cheese monopoly that existed in my life. I decided to consider broadening my cheese horizons.
2. In February (2009) I began meeting a friend on campus for lunch on a weekly basis. This resulted in me packing lunches, which increased my demand for sliced cheese, leading to more cheese buying opportunities.
So this is what my cumulative sliced cheese diversity looks like:
Figure 1. Cumulative sliced cheese diversity over the past three years.
You’ll notice for the first year I only purchased white American cheese. After a year of exclusively eating white American cheese one day I was forced to purchase yellow American cheese when the deli ran out of white American cheese. I resumed buying white American for the next year (so my cumulative cheese diversity was 2). Provolone cheese became number 3 the following year when I picked it up once to make Italian hoagies.
And then I had my Damascus Road Cheese Diversity Experience, and a sharp upturn follows. Within the space of two months I sampled hot pepper cheese, sharp American cheese, super sharp cheese, and Muenster cheese. I intend to continue trying new sliced cheeses.
So far I have liked all the new types I have tried, but not one of them has unseated the champion.
