I’m sorry, did I hear your right? I’m sure I did and the reason I know that is that I used to be one of you. So, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to help you with that! Following is my story of falling in love with blue cheese, with a little bit of help from my loyal friend, dark chocolate.

I hear this phrase a lot, and people are fiercely attached to their distaste for all things cheesy and bleu! For years and years, I would eat any cheese you put in front of me except – you guessed it – blue cheese. I always thought my Dad was out of his mind because he loved it. How could he put that in his mouth? And then seemingly enjoy it? I couldn’t stand the smell, and I couldn’t imagine you’d want to eat anything 1) moldy and 2) blue. I mean, how much blue food is there out there besides blueberries?

Anyhow, fast-forward to my mid-30s, and I was living in New York City. I was working a full-time job in tech for a company called Smartling, and I had just founded my company. One day, I decided to take myself to a cheese class at Murray’s Cheese (oh, Murray’s, I miss you so!). The class went on just fine until we got to the last cheese.

Ugh, I thought. I’m going to have to eat this. I don’t want to be that fussy person who doesn’t eat her blue cheese. And then, the tip that changed my life.

No surprise here, of course: it was a blue.

”You’ll notice we added a piece of dark chocolate to your cheese board,” said the instructor. “For those of you who think you don’t like blue cheese, place the chocolate on top of the bite of blue cheese and pop the whole thing in your mouth.” Yeah, right, I thought. You’re trying to pull the wool over my eyes. No way I’m falling for THAT! And so with a mid-30s, New York confidence, I prepared to prove him wrong. So I did it.

I put the blue cheese in my mouth.

And my life changed.

So please do this. Right now. And then feel free to email me and thank me!

Want some tips on how to create the perfect cheese board? Head on over here for some ideas!