WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-'Cultured' creamery

Barre Town, Vermont - August 6, 2010

At the Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery, there's a double meaning to the word "cultured." The company's butter is upscale: "It's smart and sophisticated," chuckles company co-founder Allison Hooper.

The butter is also made using good bacterial cultures. Cream fermentation gives it a unique taste. "It's the best on bread!" Hooper beams.

Vermont Butter & Cheese is 26 years old, and is constantly evolving. Hooper learned how to make cheese from the masters in France, taking that knowledge to her Brookfield farm in 1984, where she produced small batches of the traditional styles.

Four years later, she expanded to a plant in the Barre Town village of Websterville, selling to top French chefs in New York City. Boosted by the Vermont Fresh Network, restaurant accounts were the company's focus for more than a decade.

But dining out took a big dip after 9/11, so Hooper branched out. "Consumers are really looking for these things," Hooper says.

Now, more than half her business is packaged products for specialty food markets, mainly on the East Coast for between $4 and $7. Plant worker Debbie Shedd says, "When you see things Made in Vermont, it's nice."

For its cheeses, the brand uses milk from Vermont goats and cows as much as possible. They're top industry prize-winners.

The cows' milk butter goes into Shedd's fudge and Chex Mix. "You can taste it. It gives it a much nicer flavor than regular margarine," she says.

The cultured butter really is a luxury: tangy and nutty, it is almost like a cheese itself. One variety even has sea salt blended in.

Allison Hooper says butter is a growing category in markets, with more foreign and fresh varieties appearing on store shelves and consumers tasting the difference. Hooper's butter is 86-percent milk fat. Most grocery store brands are 80-percent.

"While you might think 'Oh, I can't eat that because it's higher in fat!,'" Hooper says, "You absolutely can eat it, you just don't eat as much. When you do treat yourself to really good butter, you want it to taste really good."

A quarter-century and counting, Allison Hooper still eats her product daily, and with each bite, savors the belief that the "Made in Vermont" label, makes our whole state stronger.

Click here for more information on the company.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont