KEY POINTS:
Cheese making is hardly the most exciting process to watch. Not only is it slow, but it's also low on glamour with its compulsory, unflattering white overall and shower-cap ensemble.
"[Cheese workers] look like the oompah loompahs in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory," laughs John Heslin. He should know, because almost an entire wall of the specialty cafe, Art of Cheese, that he and partner Donna Li have run for the past year is made of glass.
Through it you can view workers from next door's Puhoi Valley Cheese factory crafting Bohemian Blue, Ahuroa Blue, blue brie, mascarpone and creme fraiche - much of it available at factory prices in the cafe, and at farmers' markets under the Art of Cheese label.
The world of cheese is relatively new to Heslin. Until late last year he and Li were living in Auckland, where he ran a car dealership, but both were looking for a change.
"We'd been here as customers ourselves and we loved it," recalls Li. "After years of living in town we just wanted to get out and get some fresh air, do something new. It's beautiful here."
Art of Cheese sits on the edge of the historic Puhoi village that was settled in 1863 by 86 migrants from Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). Today it's a quaint backwater known for its old church and the colourful pub.
The cafe itself has a kind of down-home Kiwi feel and it's surrounded by acres of lawns, a lake and a children's playground.
So it's a perfect spot for family outings, with loads of space for the ankle-biters to run around and exhaust themselves while the adults enjoy a glass of the local Ransom wine and a platter of cheese.
This is the moment to break out from the everyday cheddars we tend to fill our fridges with.
As well as Puhoi Valley products, the cafe is stocked with an array of artisan cheeses. Possibly the most interesting and rare is the nettle gouda, which is said to be good for the arteries - surely a good thing given the number of high-fat dairy treats on offer.
"It's made from nettles imported from Holland because the New Zealand ones aren't suitable. I like to tell customers it'll numb their tongues," laughs Heslin.
There is an entire cabinet devoted to different styles of gouda because, explains Heslin, it's an enormously popular cheese.
Whether you want it aged, flavoured with garlic and chives, cumin or walnuts, or made from goat's milk, you'll find the gouda of your dreams here. Blue cheese is another house specialty, including an amazing in-your-face crumbly version that Heslin and Li say is their "special blue" from a secret source.
Cheese is also incorporated into the dishes on the menu. There's a big chunk of melted Bohemian Blue on top of the sirloin in the open steak sandwich, and you'll also find it swirled through the tomato soup.
For the kids there are havarti cheese toasted sandwiches, and for grown-ups, the moreish Swiss version involving bread drizzled with white wine.
"Nothing here is deep fried," says Heslin. "It's all very healthy food - well, healthy considering it's cheese." Cheese, however, is not the most popular thing on the menu. What people really go wild for are the Art of Cheese salad dressings that Heslin also sells at the Matakana Farmer's Market.
"People will buy four or five bottles at a time," he says. "I had one woman from overseas who wanted to buy 20 litres of it."
- Detours, HoS
