Wow. Just wow. I am so impressed with this cheese. I tasted it when it first debuted about five years ago, but it is off-the-charts delicious now. Did I change or did the cheese? “It’s the same recipe,” says the cheesemaker, “but we have some really awesome milk now.” Hugely aromatic, supple and beautiful to boot. Put this on your summer cheese boards and wait for the raves.

Samantha Genke makes only 600 squares a week of this lovely ashed robiola. For a country with 50 states, that’s not much. Christened Rocket’s Robiola, it’s one of the flagship products of the family-owned Boxcarr Handmade Cheese. I recounted the back story of this North Carolina enterprise, launched by a brother and sister, shortly after their debut in 2015. Austin Genke is a former chef, his wife is a graphic artist (and, now, goatherd) and Samantha has a talent for cheesemaking. If that’s not the ideal package of skills for starting a creamery, it’s pretty close. Wisely, they turned to a trained cheesemaker from Northern Italy for help with the recipes.

Although named for one of Samantha’s first goats, Rocket’s Robiola is a cow’s milk cheese inspired by the robiolas of Piedmont and Lombardy. Those cheeses aren’t typically ashed, but at Boxcarr the ash solved a problem. An earlier creation, Rosie’s Robiola, was developing some unwanted blue mold. Ashing the outside helped the rind develop faster so it can outcompete the blue. Microbiology in action. Now Samantha can make Rosie’s and Rocket’s in the same room, with Rocket keeping the blue mold at bay.

“It’s the milk,” said Samantha when I told her about my recent positive experience with Rocket’s. After years of struggling to find a reliable supplier, she now gets Jersey milk from a young farmer nearby and is thrilled with the quality. I’m not the only person to tell her the robiola is better than ever.

Cut into this handsome dusky square and the aroma leaps out, a wave of mushroom, barnyard, garlic and aged beef. The interior slumps quickly; have some bread ready. The recipe relies on Geotrichum candidum to produce the soft, damp, wrinkled rind, which you definitely should consume.

Extra-gentle handling of the curd keeps this cheese so moist and supple. “We don’t stir it, we just jiggle it,” says Samantha. “That’s our trademark.” The cheese is wrapped and shipped after a week and ripens in its package en route to stores. A six-week-old square should be perfect.

Look for Rocket’s Robiola at these stores.