Bonnie: In case you hadn’t noticed, we are all Cabot fans. Anyone who tastes Cabot’s delicious award-winning cheddar also becomes a devotee. At Bite of the Best, we’ve been raving about them since this site’s inception. (For our complete Cabot-connection story click here.)

Cabot is a family-owned cooperative of farmers that began in 1919 and is located in Vermont. They produce these fabulous cheeses plus butter, yogurt (regular & Greek), sour cream, dips, cottage cheese and even whipped cream. It’s their sharp cheddar that my fridge is never without.

But I also love these Serious Snackers individual portions of their cheese, wrapped and ready to tuck into your pocket, suitcase or purse for when hunger hits. Or, toss them into a lunch bag with dried fruit, whole grain crackers and some veggies.

It’s smart to keep a couple of these stashed for the food-less domestic coach flights (or other train or bus trips) to avoid the chemically laden, quasi-food offered for sale. And the TSA personal can’t take them – unless they’re Cabot cheese lovers and purport they’re not allowed!

Bryan: Bread, cheese and wine…. do you really need anything else? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is the truly Holy Trinity of food. As Bonnie has noted, we’re huge fans of Cabot Cheese at Bite of the Best. We’re actually huge fans of cheese in general, but when we find a company like Cabot that continues to deliver high quality products and continues to expand their distribution, we feel it our duty to continue to sing their praises.

Cabot is by far one of the highest quality cheeses that is almost universally available. I think consumers have begun to believe that Cabot isn’t as small and ’boutique’ a cheese as it actually is, as its presence in most major supermarkets belies its small company reality.

The Cabot story is quite different from most food companies trying to find your cheddar for their cheddar. Cabot’s uniqueness reaches back to 1919, when a small collection of farmers from the Cabot area decided to join forces, so they could turn surplus milk into other dairy products to market throughout New England. The company grew and in 1930 hired its first cheesemaker. By 1960, Cabot’s family farms numbered 600 and the company began entering its (now famous in New England) cheddar in national competitions, taking first place in the cheddar category at the 1989 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest. Cabot cheddars then went on an impressive run of awards competitions, winning every single major award or honor for taste over the next few years.

Today, Cabot remains 100% owned by farm families and remains 100% committed to producing high quality cheeses. The newest addition are the Snackers, a big-flavored, properly sized snack piece of cheese. The new portions come in a convenient 3/4-ounce bar. You can find a number of flavors, from reduced fat jalapeno to regular, but we are all super fans of the SERIOUSLY sharp. If sharp is your thing, you’ll SERIOUSLY want to pick up a pack of these Snackers.

Eric: If you’re a devoted reader of Bite of the Best, or even if you’ve just been following our website for the past few months, than you probably are aware that we — as food testers and writers — have a strong affinity for cheese. Whether it is hard, smoked, gooey, stinky or full of mold — cheese will never go out of style, and it is those companies capitalizing on its market demand that will have a continued success. Cabot, as a producer and advocate of “local” cheese, is one of those companies.

Continuously setting benchmarks in the industry, as well as in our stomachs, Cabot has most recently re-defined the on-the-go snack for any cheese aficionado. Cabot Snackers might not be the most ingenious product to ever hit the market, but the simplicity surrounding the concept of packaging delicious sharp cheddar cheese in convenient on-the-go packaging is brilliant. Cabot Snackers aren’t designed for use in the house — they’re for cheese junkies that need to get their fix while out and about; in the car, at an event, on a plane, in a train, on a hike. As my brother states, they’re a SERIOUSLY good idea.