5 Gifts to Please Your Cheese-Loving Leo Friends
Allegedly it's March that comes in like a lion, but that’s just talking about the weather. In a much stronger, celestial energy pull, it’s August that totally comes in like a Lion, with the glorious—dare I even say, vainglorious—advent of Leo season. (Consequently, August kinda also goes out like a lamb at the start of Virgo season, in a sense.)
I mean Leos no disrespect, as a sign that I am a little in awe of. If you’ve ever known and loved a Leo, you know that they can sometimes act like the world revolves around them. One of the first things I learned from a Leo friend was the celebration of one’s entire birth month, rather than just a single day. But the thing is? The world kind of does revolve around Leos. Leo’s ruling sign is the sun, which, if you need a little brush-up on planetary movements, is the very thing this planet, at least, revolves around. So it's no wonder that Leos exist in a permanent state of pay-attention-to-me. It is programmed into their sunny, magnetic DNA.
Leos are not at all take-without-give, though, and they are generous, loyal, fun-loving folk, for whom Hot (Person) Summer was basically invented, and who isn’t afraid to bring anyone and everyone into their limelight. So bask in that Leo glow this summer, and celebrate your cheese-loving Leo friends, with these 5 gifts that speak to the attention-seekers.
Back when this whole Zodiac and cheese experiment started, having selected Shooting Star’s Scorpio to honor that sign, I prayed that there would be an equivalent cheese for Leo come the season. And there is in fact, but when it came down to it, I felt like a true Leo wouldn't want to be that predictable, at least not all of the time. (In the spirit of honesty, though, I called out a Leo-entitled beer over at Alcohol Professor, but that has a label with which to project self love, which is an important element.) Shooting Star Leo is a sheep’s milk bloomy rind, which I did think had a nice Leo vibe about it: elegant on the outside, a little wilder than expected on the inside. And so I found its cousin: Woolly Rind from Missouri’s Green Dirt farm, a camembert-style mixed milk bloomy to lean into the lion-in-sheep’s-clothing metaphor.
It’s really mimolette’s color that holds the most Leo appeal: golden and gilded, as the lions like to be. But as with Leos themselves, mimolette is way more than meets the eye. More than just a pretty face, its decadent, nearly caramelized interior contains something almost sinister or dangerous: tiny cheese mites that contribute to mimolette’s smooth yet subtly granular texture. I can’t help but look at mimolette through an Aesopian, Lion-and-the-Mouse lens, which illustrates that Leos know how to surround themselves with those who magnify their best qualities, not in a sycophantic way, but in one of mutual dependence.
Did I pick this cheese because it had Lion in the name? I totally did. But the Leo logic still bears out. Creamy, decadent burrata has been prom queen of summer salads in the U.S. for several years now, and basically the only things that can make burrata even more fabulous than it already is are truffles. Lioni is a New Jersey based creamery from an Italian ex-pat family that specializes in the art of fresh-milk cheeses, producing top quality fresh mozzarella and its adjacent products from their state-of-the-art, family-run facility.
The Art of the Cheese Plate: Pairings, Recipes, Style, Attitude by Tia Keenan
There are any number of excellent books that help illustrate how to create an attractive cheese plate. But more than just know-how and technique from an accomplished chef-fromager, Keenan’s text speaks fluent Leo in its use of “style” and “attitude” in the title. (Keenan is a Pisces and the book itself a Virgo, but there’s clearly Leo energy at work here.) More than just a book of pretty pictures and imaginative pairings, the art of the Cheese Plate is specifically a manual for hosting, something that outgoing Leos love to do best.
It’s really the word commander here that best applies to Leos, as the most charismatic and confident sign of the Zodiac. With king of the jungle instincts, what other sign is more inclined to vivisect full wheels with the equipment on hand to do so? While the razor wire take-down of cheese wheels is a rather tidier conquest than the kind of predation most actual lions are accustomed to, it will be no less a source of pride for your boldest Leo friends.