Pepper Colby Jack

Pepper Colby Jack Brings the Heat

Pepper colby jack cheese serves up a perfect blend of creamy texture, buttery sweetness, and spicy heat. With an orange-white marbling of colby and monterey jack cheeses, pepper colby jack may be blended with flakes or chunks of habanero, jalapeno, chipotle, and ghost peppers to dial up the heat from medium to extra high. Pepper colby jack puts a spicy twist on burgers, subs, and grilled cheese sandwiches, and it's a natural for nachos, enchiladas, and queso dips. When your taste buds crave a little flavor adventure, pepper colby jack is happy to help.

Spice It Up with Wisconsin Pepper Colby Jack

Pepper colby jack cheese is right at home in Wisconsin. After all, colby cheese is a classic Wisconsin original, named for the Wisconsin city where it was invented, so it should be no surprise colby jack was invented here, too.

The practice of mixing different types of cheese and adding special ingredients is right down our alley – our cheesemakers are constantly innovating new flavors, styles, and types of cheese. That's why you'll find Wisconsin cheeses like 3 Pepper Colby Jack from Boar's Head, a mellow colby jack with red and green jalapenos, fiery green and orange habaneros, and smoky chipotle peppers along with Sargento's Colby-Pepper Jack that serves up a pleasant kick, with habanero and jalapeno pepper flavors. And Ghost Pepper Colby Jack from Kindred Creamery dials up the heat factor to 11 by adding flakes of the ultra-spicy ghost pepper.

Everything to Know about Pepper Colby Jack

Pepper colby jack cheese is made with three distinct ingredients: colby cheese, monterey jack cheese, and one or more types of chili peppers. It a semi-soft variety that combines the mild, buttery flavor of monterey jack cheese with the sweeter flavor of colby and the spicy heat from flakes or chunks of pepper. Since both colby and monterey jack have excellent melting properties, pepper colby jack is a beautiful choice for melting over burgers, sandwiches, pasta, and grilled vegetables.

Where did pepper colby jack come from?

No one knows for sure who made the first batch of pepper colby jack cheese. Monterey jack cheese originated in Monterey, California in the 1700s and is named after the first businessman to sell and distribute it widely in the 1800s. Colby cheese was invented by a cheddar cheese maker in Colby Wisconsin around 1885 and is made with a stirred-curd technique that produces a milder, less acidic style of cheese than traditional cheddar. Wisconsin cheesemakers combined colby and monterey jack in 1979 and began adding pepper and other ingredients somewhere along the way.

How is pepper colby jack made?

Pepper colby jack is made by first separately preparing batches of colby and monterey jack cheeses, which are then pressed together in molds to produce the orange-white marbled appearance. Peppers may be added as chunks, flakes, or blended with the cheese before it is pressed into the mold.

How hot is pepper colby jack cheese?

The spiciness of pepper colby jack depends on the types of peppers used in preparation. A ghost pepper cheese will be much hotter than a cheese made with jalapenos, which are among the mildest types of pepper. The heat of peppers is measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which is the number of times a pepper must be diluted before it no longer tastes hot.

What to Pair with Pepper Colby Jack

Choosing what to sip and savor with your cheese is half the fun of the pepper colby jack experience!

What to sip

You can go two ways when choosing drinking buddies for a spicy cheese like pepper colby jack. You might select a beer or wine that packs a punch and can hold its own with this big-flavored cheese – think a red zinfandel or an imperial stout beer. Alternatively, for a pleasant contrast, choose something sweet to balance out the peppery spice in the cheese – a glass of moscato, for example, or a lighter lager or wheat beer.

What to munch

When building a cheese board, it's nice to go with cool, sweet, slightly acidic foods that offer a nice contrast to the creamy heat of pepper colby jack. Ingredients like grapes, honey, raspberry jam, or caramel are great choices. On the other hand, you can choose savory ingredients that will match pepper colby jack punch for punch – spicy cured meats, tart pickles, savory chutneys, and green olives will do pepper colby jack up right.