The AnyCheese Holiday Gift Guide

Explore Cheeses

Explore cheese varieties from around the world, categorized by texture, milk type, and region.

Arzúa-Ulloa

Arzúa-Ulloa is a soft cow's milk cheese from Galicia, Spain, protected as Arzúa-A Ulloa PDO. It is known for a thin yellow rind, a creamy pale paste, and a mild flavor that is slightly sweet and grassy.

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Cow's milk (raw or pasteurized)
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Slightly salty and pleasantly acidic, buttery and milky with nutty notes

Brin d'Amour

Brin d'amour is a Corsican raw sheep's milk cheese created in the 1950s. It is known for a natural rind dusted with herbs of the maquis, which pass their flavor into the soft ivory paste as the cheese ages.

Country: France
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Soft to firm
Flavor: Earthy

Rocamadour

Rocamadour is a very small raw goat's milk cheese from southwest France, named after the village of Rocamadour in the Lot. It is soft, creamy and white, weighs about 35 grams, and has carried AOC status since 1996.

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat's milk
Texture: Soft and creamy; becomes drier (matured)
Flavor: Mild; becomes stronger

Gouda-Style

Gouda-Style cheese is a semi-hard cheese that originated in the Netherlands. It is made from cow's milk and is known for its smooth, creamy texture. The flavor is rich and buttery with a mild sweetness, often accompanied by nutty notes. …

Red Leicester

Red Leicester is an English cow's milk cheese from Leicestershire, close to Cheddar but crumblier. Annatto gives it its orange colour, and four to nine months of ageing takes it from mild and mellow to tangy and slightly nutty.

Country: United Kingdom
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Hard, similar to Cheddar but more moist, crumbly
Flavor: Caramel, sweet

Adelost

Adelost is a Swedish blue cheese made from pasteurized cow's milk, with a light cream paste shot through with blue-gray veins. Its name means noble cheese, and it is known for a sharp, salty flavor and use as a table …

Country: Sweden
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-soft, blue-veined
Flavor: Salty, sharp, tangy

Murazzano

Murazzano is a PDO cheese from the Alta Langa hills in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont. It is made mostly from the milk of a native Langhe sheep breed, with up to 40 percent cow's milk, and can be eaten …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Ewe’s (up to 60%) and Cow’s (up to 40%)
Texture: Fresh
Flavor: Sweet to savory

Bergkäse

Bergkäse, German for mountain cheese, is a group of Alpine cheeses made on mountain pastures and in local dairies. Most are hard or semi-hard with a natural rind, a strong and slightly nutty flavour, and few or no eyes.

Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Hard to semi-hard, sometimes with small holes or cracks
Flavor: Strong, often a bit nutty

Leerdammer

Leerdammer is a Dutch semi-hard cow's milk cheese with distinct holes and a sweet, nutty flavor. Launched in 1977, it was built to match Emmental in look and taste, and it ages about 3 to 12 months.

Country: Netherlands
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-hard
Flavor: Mild, nutty, sweet

Pepato

Pepato is a semi-hard Sicilian sheep milk cheese studded with whole peppercorns. It is sold young at about 10 days or aged two to four months, and it turns up throughout Sicilian home cooking.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Semi-hard, artisan
Flavor: Salty, spicy

Queso Zamorano

Zamorano is a hard sheep's milk cheese from the province of Zamora, Spain, typically aged about six months in cellars. Wheels run about 11 kg (24 lb), carry a zigzag pattern on the rind, and taste creamy and nutty with …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Firm and compact
Flavor: Intense, nutty, buttery, slightly piquant

Brie

Brie is a soft cow's milk cheese named after the French region it comes from, pale under a white mould rind. It runs 60 to 75 percent butterfat and tastes creamy, nutty and mushroom-like, with a faint acidity. The rind …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Buttery , Creamy , Smooth , Soft
Flavor: Nutty, Mushroom

Pecorino Sardo

Pecorino sardo is a firm sheep milk cheese from Sardinia, made with milk from the island's local Sarda sheep and curdled with calf's rennet. It comes in two versions: dolce, aged 20 to 60 days, and maturo, aged more than …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Sheep's Milk
Texture: Firm but springy and elastic for Dolce, Hard and grainy for Maturo
Flavor: Mild and sweet for Dolce, More piquant and pronounced in salt for Maturo

Ragusano

Ragusano is a firm Italian pasta filata cheese from the provinces of Ragusa and Syracuse in Sicily. It is made with whole milk from Modicana cows fed only fresh grass or hay, and it carries Italian DOC protection from 1955 …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Compact with widely spaced holes
Flavor: From pleasant, sweet, and piquant delicate to savory and spicy with aging

Langres

Langres is a cow's milk cheese from the plateau of Langres in Champagne-Ardenne, France. It is a small cylinder with a Penicillium candidum rind tinted orange by annatto, known for the concave dent in its top called the fontaine.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semisoft
Flavor: Creamy, nutty

Anari

Anari is a fresh, mild whey cheese from Cyprus, made mostly from the whey left over from halloumi or kefalotyri. Soft and chalk-white when young, it is eaten with carob syrup or honey, or salted and dried into a hard …

Country: Cyprus
Milk Type: Goat's or sheep's milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Very mild nutty flavor

Monte Veronese

Monte Veronese is a cow's milk cheese from the Lessini Mountains in the northern province of Verona. It is made in two versions: a fresh one from whole milk, and a harder aged one called d'allevo, made from semi-skimmed milk.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft (young), Compact (aged)
Flavor: Sweet (young), Intense and tangy (aged)

Puzzone di Moena

Puzzone di Moena is a semi-hard Italian PDO cheese made from raw cow's milk in Val di Fassa, Val di Fiemme and Valle di Primiero. Its washed rind is brick red and greasy, and the cheese is known for a …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Semi-cooked, medium-hard, elastic
Flavor: Strong, intense, slightly salty and/or sharp, with a barely-perceptible bitter aftertaste

Livarot

Livarot is a soft, pungent washed-rind cheese from Normandy, made with Normande cow's milk and protected by an AOC since 1975. Rings of dried reedmace circle its orange rind, which is why it also goes by the name colonel.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Chewy, Melts in the mouth
Flavor: Pungent

Mahón-Menorca

Mahón-Menorca is a white cow's milk cheese from the island of Menorca, named after the town and port of Mahón. It runs soft to hard depending on age, with an orange rind rubbed with butter or oil and paprika and …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Friesian, Menorcan, Brown Alpine cow’s milk, some ewe’s milk (max 5%)
Texture: Firm
Flavor: Salty and spicy

Quesucos de Liébana

Quesucos de Liébana are small cheeses from the Liébana valley in Cantabria, Spain, made from cow, sheep or goat milk or a mix of the three. They come smoked and unsmoked, with a firm semi-hard paste and a mild, slightly …

Milk Type: Cow’s, ewe’s, goat’s milk
Texture: Firm, compact
Flavor: Mild and milky, with a smoked variant offering a distinct smoky taste

Oka

Oka is a semi-soft washed rind cow's milk cheese from Oka, Quebec, made by Trappist monks starting in 1893 and now by Agropur. It is known for its copper-orange rind, pungent smell, and soft creamy taste with nutty, fruity notes.

Country: Canada
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Semi-Soft
Flavor: Soft and creamy, nutty and fruity

Parmigiano Reggiano

Parmigiano Reggiano is a hard, granular Italian cheese made from unpasteurised cow's milk and aged at least 12 months. Protected as a PDO across Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena and parts of Bologna and Mantua, it is known for its sharp, …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Grainy, flaky
Flavor: Umami

Jarlsberg

Jarlsberg is a mild Swiss-type cheese from Norway, made from cow's milk and named after Jarlsberg Manor. It is known for its buttery, slightly sweet and nutty flavor and its medium to large holes.

Country: Norway
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semihard
Flavor: Mild, sweet, nutty

Wensleydale

Wensleydale is a supple, crumbly cow's milk cheese that started in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. It has a faint honey aroma, pairs well with sweet fruit, and owes much of its modern fame to Wallace and Gromit.

Country: United Kingdom
Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Texture: Firm and crumbly
Flavor: Fresh, lemony tang

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