Visiting Cabot {Waterbury, Vermont}

If cheese is your happy place (me! me!), and you find yourself in Vermont, be sure to plan a stop at the Cabot Annex in Waterbury.

Food was definitely one of our focuses during our Spring Break trip through Vermont. Not so much in dining experiences (only one meal out of our week there was actually noteworthy), but more so in diving into all the different food items that Vermont is known for.

One of our overnights was most definitely planned around a visit to the Cabot store in Waterbury, because, well cheese. And that day and night actually ended up being our favorite of the entire trip because nearly everything we had planned to visit, including our hotel for the night, was up and down the same street.

A fun orchard and general store. The Ben & Jerry’s ice cream outlet. An outpost for Green Mountain Coffee. And although we visited a different location, Lake Champlain Chocolates also has a spot there as well.

When I say our trip focused on food, I’m not kidding.

And that’s not a bad thing at all.

I brought a cooler. I was prepared.

So Cabot.

I am a big fan of their cheese, especially commitment to farmers and their legacy. They are wholly owned by the 1200 farms that produce their products, and they have a huge commitment to sustainability. All of which I knew about and embraced well before I started working with them a few years ago.

Starting a working relationship with them just made me love them even more.

The Cabot mothership we visited is located right on Waterbury-Stowe Road. It’s very easy to find and there was ample parking in their own lot for visitors.

Once we walked into their store, the first thing we noticed was the long u-shaped tasting area. There must have been a good thirty or so different Cabot cheeses displayed around the table, with samples readily available (they produce a ridiculous variety of cheeses, after all!).

It was there that I was introduced, and promptly fell in love with, a few Cabot varieties that our local grocery stores don’t carry. New York Vintage Cheddar is something else, and well worth hunting down.

I didn’t know they carried Muenster, so that was another delicious discovery. So good, and one of our collective favorites. And this tasting table was where the kids tried the Everything Bagel cheese for the first time, and loved it. I also hadn’t heard of the Hot Buffalo Wing flavor before and, although I liked it, I restrained myself. It packs a gentle but consistent one-two punch starting from the first bite, and even won first place in this year’s US Championship Cheese contest.

Our cooler to bring things home was quickly getting full nonetheless.

Walking around the rest of the store, we quickly noticed how much Cabot celebrates all things Vermont. Whether it was local cookbooks or maple syrup, a delicious iced hard cider (that also came home with us), or even other local cheeses from their local competitors, the store was a treasure trove for Vermont goodies for us and our friends and family.

At the register, they had caramels with a hint of goat milk in them (if I remember correctly), and we just polished off the last of them today … so smooth and creamy, they melt in your mouth. Delicious. Even homemade dog bones!

I also didn’t know that Cabot produced things like sour cream, whipped cream, Greek yogurt, and butter. It certainly stands to reason that they would, since they products are all derived from the same farms, but unfortunately these are items our local stores don’t carry yet. Back in 1919, local Cabot-area farmers (94 of them) decided to band together and use their farms’ excess milk to turn it into butter and market it to the masses. Together with their collected funds, they purchased the village creamery and as they started shipping their milk and butter to southern regions, they eventually started producing cheese in 1930.

We came home with so much cheese that now, over a month later, we are still working our way through it.

#thestruggleisreal

If you happen to be in the area of Waterbury, you can’t go wrong staying the night and putting the Cabot Annex store on your list. It’s a fun little area and you can fill up your day with family-friendly activities quite easily.

Cabot Annex Store
2657 Waterbury-Stowe Road
Waterbury, VT 05677
(802) 244-6334

PS We *almost* tacked on a stop at Cabot’s Quechee location on our way out, but efficiency prevailed. If you stop there, the locals raved about the Quechee Gorge (hello photo ops!).

PPS Also, if you have time to visit their Main Street location in Cabot, Vermont, you can watch them make cheese! Be sure to call ahead for their schedule. They were, sadly, closed for renovations during our visit to the area.

Hungry for more of Vermont?
The Vermont Country Store was an awesome stop and the last thing we did before heading home.
Our trip kicked off with a stop at the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory.
Random photo dump of our week in Vermont.