Carmen Asteinza of The Cheese Whisperer
Meet Carmen Asteinza! Carmen is the owner and founder of The Cheese Whisperer, an awesome small business promoting all things cheese and cheese adjacent. She offers monthly cheese subscriptions, large and small gift boxes, provides education about cheese, and so much more!
Carmen was exposed to specialty food from a young age while growing up in New York City. Even though New York is a massive city, it has lots of small little communities and is a melting pot for a variety of cultures. She grew up in the suburb of Forest Hills, which had several specialty stores for her to explore as a kid. In addition to this, her family valued good cooking and using fruits and veggies that are in season to gather around while cooking and eating together.
Prior to the cheese business, Carmen’s worked extensively in corporate marketing. After attending Middlebury (Go Panthers!), she lived in Madrid, Spain, and traveled around Europe tasting delicious cheese and exploring specialty stores. Once she returned to the US, Carmen went on to have a successful marketing career while maintaining her love of food. Occasionally, her marketing side merged with her foodie side and the projects would come together. She helped one friend who owned a wine and spirits company with their marketing and building the cheese side of their business. She originally started helping with the cheese as more of a fun project. Slowly, it evolved into her taking more cooking classes and diving back into the specialty food world.
Eventually, after the sudden passing of her former husband, Carmen decided to step away from her career in marketing and really dive into the cheese business. She got a certification in artisan cheese from UVM and built up her cheese experience at her friend’s market. This would lead her to eventually take the Certified Cheese Professional exam. She then started providing suggestions for pairings, did some cheese catering, and slowly the inquiries for consulting and private events came trickling in. From there, The Cheese Whisperer was born. One of her main goals is to highlight the American artisan cheese maker, but also any artisan maker. She is frequently searching for pairings from other local businesses as a way to connect a variety of products.
And this is how we Sisters connected with Carmen! For the holidays, Carmen is offering an Advent of Cheese Box that also contains many complementary specialty products including our own Elderberry Syrup. We are so excited about this partnership and the products Carmen is putting together. To learn more and order the advent box, feel free to send Carmen a message on Instagram. These are in limited quantity and if you mention our newsletter you can get 20% off!
We love what Carmen is doing with connecting many local businesses’ products together. She fully believes in the adage that a rising tide lifts all boats. She loves supporting and being a part of the community. One of her favorite things about her business is connecting with others and building bridges between everyone.
Lastly, Carmen has a few favorite flavors of ice cream! She loves classic vanilla, but can also never go wrong with a coffee flavor with anything crunchy in it. We’re so excited about our partnership with The Cheese Whisperer and continuing to see Carmen grow her business!