How to eat an Alaska Airlines fruit and cheese plate, optimally.

I fly on Alaska a lot. In addition to being a great airline they also have a notable signature snack item: the fruit and cheese plate. I’ve eaten their famous fruit and cheese plate in coach out of a paper package, and in first class on a china plate. But some things never change: it’s five pieces of cheese, four large crackers, four apple slices, and a bunch of green and purple grapes. I’ve had a lot of time to think about the best way to eat this food, and many opportunities to experiment. Here’s what I’ve found:

When eating a cheese flight, you want to start with the mildest cheese, and work your way up to the most intense. Otherwise, your palette is overwhelmed and it’s hard to enjoy the milder cheeses. Alaska typically gives you three types of cheeses: two triangular slices of mild orange cheddar, a wedge of brie, and two triangular slices of Beecher’s Flagship, which is functionally a very sharp cheddar. You can be forgiven for thinking you just get one large triangle of Beecher’s, because the two slices tend to stick together.

Now, you get the cheese plate with Beecher’s on top, but you really want to eat it last, because it’s the most intense. Here’s how I do it. I start with one triangle of the orange cheddar on one cracker. It’s a good ratio of cracker to cheese, and the cheddar is definitely the mildest of the three cheeses. After this, I usually eat an apple slice. Now, the final slice of cheddar and the second cracker. I’ll typically be drinking during this — usually sparkling water if I’m flying domestic.

Once you’ve eaten the cheddar, get out the plastic knife. This is the hardest step. You want to scrape as much of the brie onto one cracker as possible. It will be on thick, but not too thick. You may well have a little brie left in the rind or on your knife. What I do now is scrape the remaining brie on an apple slice. It’s pretty good, and preserves your final cracker for the Beecher’s.

Now, I tend to get pretty antsy if the cracker/cheese ratio is off, and if you’re keeping track, we now have two slices of Beecher’s Flagship, and one cracker. However, this is ok, for two reasons. First, Beecher’s is good and intensely flavored enough to be eaten plain, without a cracker. Second, it’s really good on apple slices, and you still have two left — sometimes three if the Alaska catering gods are generous. I will usually treat the two slices of Beecher’s as one thick slice, break off a chunk near the pointiest part of triangle and eat it plain. Then I’ll separate the slices, put the remains of one slice on a cracker and eat it, and eat the second slice either plain or on an apple. The better the apple, the more likely I am to pair it with the Beecher’s. If the apple is sub par, I eat them separately.

If I’m really hungry, I’ll eat a grape or two, but I’m not huge grape fan. If I’m traveling with family they get the grapes. There’s also a salted dark chocolate that comes with the plate. You may want to end with this, but personally I’m usually happy with my last bite being apple or Beecher’s, or even a grape.

This is the optimum way I’ve found to enjoy an Alaska Airlines fruit and cheese plate.