MKE Influencers: 'Wisconsin Cheese Please' introduces Instagram to a little Wisconsin nice and a lot of Wisconsin cheese

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- We sat down with Sam Buschman at West Allis Cheese and Sausage shop during a busy lunch rush. 

But she has no problem telling the waitress to make sure her cheese curds are fresh. After all, she's posting a review for her 17,000 followers to see. And some of her cheese curd reviews have upwards of 150,000 views. 

Buschman happened upon her Cheese Curd Queen status. 

It was during the pandemic when restaurants were just starting to reopen. She had lost her job and wanted to support the industry. Her first review was right here at the West Allis Cheese and Sausage shop. Now, three years later, she's tasting them again for the first time. 

"So, we want to rate the breading, the cheese, the sauce, and then they get an overall rating," Buschman explains to me as we walk through the process. 

Since that first review, she's tried 265 different curds. 

"If somebody tells me they have good cheese curds somewhere, I add it to my list. Which has still over 100 places to go to," said Buschman. 

While Instagram curd reviewing is just a part-time job, people don't take her hard work for granted. 

"I get a lot of comments of, 'you're doing the Lord's work,' because people take their cheese curds very seriously in Wisconsin," she said.

But Buschman has made it profitable. 

"I started working more with tourism boards or event planning companies," she said. "They pay me to go to these places. Usually, it's to promote the whole town or city...so I did a trip to Green Bay and did a cheese curd crawl and I make income from that. 

Buschman has proved to the social media world that she is the go-to person for cheese curd recommendations. That was obvious last year when Barstool Sports reached out to collaborate with her.

"They were doing a cheese curd series in Milwaukee and wanted to know where to go. I was like wow. They found me on the internet and reached out and I met up with them to do a cheese curd review and that was kind of like a holy cow moment."

Her website has a spreadsheet and curd map. 

As CBS 58 sits down with Buschman, we learn a little bit about just how much of a science a cheese curd tasting is. 

"Make sure there's no, what we call, curd holes. When the cheese falls out of the breading, it's a curd hole...I patented that term," said Buschman. 

Overall, she gives West Allis Cheese and Sausage shop a high eight.

Her cheese curd tasting isn't over in Wisconsin, but she'll have to do it when she returns home. Meanwhile, she's documenting her RV travels across the US. Now you can find RV living content on her Instagram, and when she finds a place with "Wisconsin Cheese Curds" she always stops. 

"They're never the same," said Buschman. 

You can find Wisconsin Cheese Please on Instagram, HERE.