The fact that the phrase “American cheese” connotes those chemically emulsified flaps of salmon-colored “food product” is, to speak frankly, a profanation of our country’s proud heritage. Saxelby Cheesemongers, which opened last week in Essex Street Market, takes a delicious step toward amending the outrage. Anne Saxelby might be recognizable to regulars at Murray’s, where she sold cheese for a couple of years; she’s also made cheese, here and in Europe. Her new shop sells only American farmstead cheeses, among the best of which is a goats’-milk tomme from Vermont’s Twig Farm. The farm typically ages its tomme only three or four months, but right now Ms. Saxelby is selling a remarkable nine-month-old specimen, to which extra aging has given an immediate goaty, almost winy, tang, and a lingering earthiness. The expert proprietress hands out tastes liberally, and offers a wealth of handcrafted cheeses beyond the tomme, none of them neon-orange.

Saxelby Cheesemongers, Essex Street Market, Essex Street at Delancey Street, 212-228-8204.