Are You Ready for Some Cheeseball?!: NCheeseAA
April 6, 2008
Inspired by a throwdown that took place in the Tomato Nation's comments, Bunting suggested we take our shared cheese obsession and bracket it up. These days, there appears to be nothing you can't bracket. So without further ado, we bring you the proud, the mighty, the stinky: the NCheeseAA!

[trumpet fanfare, laser show, laser show, laser show]

After much discussion, which included heated comments like, "I've never heard of that cheese, and you know what? I wouldn't eat it if I DID!" and "I INSIST on Pleasant Ridge Reserve! Don't make me send you rotten camel cheese in an unventilated mailer in the middle of July!" and "THAT'S NOT EVEN A CHEEEESE!" and several boxes of Stoned Wheat Thins, we cobbled up a list of 64 cheeses in 4 different shopping regions: Deli, Grocery Store, Whole Foods, and Ye Olde Stanke Cheese Shoppe (a.k.a. Extreme Cheesnobbery, a.k.a. my home). We've got it all -- we've got stinky Italian, we've got squeaky curds, we've got spray. Hell, we've even got government cheese!

We're sure you all have opinions as well, so here's your chance to get out there and rock the cheese vote. We've already done the rankings and the match-ups; all you have to do is vote in the polls and keep an eye on the brackets to watch your favorites soar through the tourney with the grate-est of ease.

In a cascading style, the 64 round starts Monday, April 7th with the Whole Foods match-ups, followed by Deli on Tuesday, Grocery on Wednesday, and Stanke Cheese Shoppe on Thursday. Closing the polls will work in the same manner; watch this space for updates and instructions.

Bunting and Keckler will also be writing up their opinions on various match-ups, and as you all probably know by now, Stephanie has her cheesemongered opinions when it comes to cheese. Like, if Mimolette gets far beyond the first round, she will have to incite a cheese riot. And Bunting has sampled many a moldy oldie her own self on the civilian side, but don't take our word for it —- vote for your favorites!

Starting tomorrow, Grub Report and Tomato Nation will post extremely opinionated coverage of the cheese match-ups. Read, laugh, argue, scream, and then vote in the polls at Tomato Nation.

Questions? Drop an email to bunting at tomatonation dot com or keckler22 at grubreport dot com.

Where do we vote?

Check the homepages of TN and/or The Grub Report for the latest polling updates. Currently: voting for the first round of Whole Foods cheeses is open.

I've never heard of some of these cheeses.

That's okay; just vote for the one you do know in each match-up (or against it, as the case may be), or skip that poll if you like. Or you can use our write-ups to guide you (check the TN and Grub Report homepages; our Whole Foods guide is here).

How could you leave off Cheez Whiz/Laughing Cow/another cheese I like that isn't in the tourney?!

With only 64 slots in four areas, we couldn't include everything. Email us; we'll consider including your cheese next year if it gets enough write-in support.

Dear Sirs: I must strongly disagree with your rankings and/or the initial match-up selection for reasons of fairness, my knowing more than you, etc. etc. blah humbug.

1. We're ma'ams. 2. We're not electing a president over here.

But seriously, folks…some of the match-ups look a little hinky to us, too, because we tried to randomize the initial rounds as much as possible, but we've never done this before, so there may be ways to improve it for next time. This time, though, it is what it is. Just have fun with it.

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