Kicker: The stink that wins

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NICK EICHER, HOST: More than five thousand cheeses went head-to-head this month at the World Cheese Awards in Switzerland. Judges say the first test wasn’t flavor — it was smell. The culprit? A tiny microbe called Brevibacterium linens. It’s famous for two things: one, making world-class cheese and, two, making feet smell so — memorable.

AUDIO: This was one of my bucket list ambitions, to be judging at the World Cheese Awards. I’m just pinching myself. I can’t believe it’s real.

Oh, it’s real—and the judges needed real courage to push on through. One said a certain entry opened like a teenager’s gym bag—but the taste was the payoff. Call it the B. linens paradox: the stinkier the start, the better the finish.

This year’s first-place finisher: a Swiss Gruyère. So in case you ever doubt the power of humble bacteria, just remember: in the cheese world, there’s a limit to what the nose knows.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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