The AnyCheese Holiday Gift Guide

Explore Cheeses

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

Mascarpone

Mascarpone is a soft Italian dairy product made by coagulating cream with acid and heat, without rennet and without aging. Milky white and easy to spread, it is best known as the base of tiramisu.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Buttery to slightly tangy

Ezine Peyniri

Ezine peyniri is a matured full-fat white cheese from Çanakkale Province in Türkiye, made from a mix of goat, sheep and cow milk. It is one of the most popular white cheeses in the country and the first Turkish cheese …

Milk Type: Sheep, goat, and cow
Texture: Semi-hard to firm
Flavor: Mild-sweet, salty, and sour

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

Selles-sur-Cher

Selles-sur-Cher is a goat milk cheese from Centre-Val de Loire, France, first made in the 19th century in the commune it is named for. It comes as a small charcoal-dusted cylinder of about 150 g, known for its grey-blue mould …

Country: France
Milk Type: Whole goat’s milk
Texture: Fine and firm
Flavor: Fresh, hazelnut

Cream Cheese

Cream cheese is a soft, mild fresh cheese made from milk and cream, sold unripened rather than aged. It began in Chester, New York in the 1870s and is best known as the spread on a bagel.

Country: United States
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Fresh soft, processed
Flavor: Creamy, mild, sweet

Cabrales

Cabrales is a blue cheese made by rural dairy farmers in the Asturias mountains of Spain, from raw cow's milk alone or blended with goat and sheep milk. It is known for its strong, sometimes sharply acidic flavor and for …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Unctuous, compact, no eyes
Flavor: Intense, piquant

Picón Bejes-Tresviso

Picón Bejes-Tresviso is a blue cheese from the Liébana valley in Cantabria, Spain, made from a mix of cow, sheep and goat milk. It has held DO protection since 1994 and finishes in natural limestone caves, which gives it teal …

Milk Type: Cow’s, sheep’s, and goat’s milk
Texture: Soft, Semi-Hard, Compact with eyes
Flavor: Slightly piquant

Brocciu

Brocciu is a Corsican cheese made from a mix of whey and ewe's milk. It is eaten fresh or ripened for a few weeks, and it holds less lactose than Italian ricotta, which it often replaces.

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat's or sheep's milk
Texture: Soft, creamy
Flavor: Meltingly creamy, saltier when matured

Fontal

Fontal is one of the names that grew out of fontina, the cow's milk cheese first produced in Italy. Cheeses under derivative names like fontal are made in other parts of Italy and in Denmark, Sweden, Quebec, France, Argentina, and …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow

Ricotta Salata

Ricotta Salata is a pressed, salted, dried, and aged version of ricotta, which turns it into a firm, crumbly cheese with a mild, milky flavor and a slightly salty bite. It's frequently grated over pasta, salads, or used in cooked …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Semi-hard, whey

Blue

Blue cheese is any cheese made with edible mold cultures that form blue-green spots and veins through the paste. It ranges from mild and slightly sweet to salty and sharp, and from almost liquid to hard.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow, Sheep, Goat
Texture: Creamy , Crumbly , Granular , Soft
Flavor: Sharp, Tangy, Savory, Salty, Pungent

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

Queso Camerano

Queso Camerano is a goat's milk cheese from the Sierra de los Cameros in La Rioja, Spain, sold fresh, tierno, semi-cured or cured. It is known for the basketwork pattern left by the cilla, the wicker mold it is pressed …

Milk Type: Goat
Texture: Soft to semi-soft (fresh, soft); semi-hard to hard (semi-cured, cured)
Flavor: Mild, slightly acidic (fresh); stronger, slightly salty, musty (aged)

Queso Los Beyos

Queso de Los Beyos is a protected geographical indication cheese from the Los Beyos gorge, shared by Ponga and Amieva in Asturias and Oseja de Sajambre in Leon, Spain. It is a small smoked cheese of cow, goat, or sheep …

Milk Type: Cow’s, sheep’s, or goat’s milk (never mixed)
Texture: Hard to semi-hard, closed, friable, crumbly, minimal elasticity
Flavor: Mild (cow’s milk), more intense (sheep’s and goat’s milk)

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

Maroilles

Maroilles is a cow's milk cheese from northern France, sold in rectangular blocks with a moist orange-red washed rind. It is known for its strong smell and takes its name from the village of Maroilles, where it has been made …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semisoft
Flavor: Creamy taste, powerful aroma

Ser koryciński swojski

Ser koryciński swojski is a rennet cheese from the Korycin area of Poland's Podlaskie province, made from unpasteurised cow's milk. It is shaped into a flattened ball of about 3 kg and sold plain or with herbs, spices and garlic.

Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Fresh: Wet, very elastic; Matured: Moist, elastic; Ripe: Slightly moist, elastic
Flavor: Fresh: Mild and creamy; Matured: Slightly salty with a nutty overtone; Ripe: Dry, rather salty with a nutty taste

Abbaye de Tamié

Abbaye de Tamié is a soft cheese made from unpasteurised cow's milk by the monks of Tamié Abbey in Savoie, in the French Alps. It is close in style to Reblochon, with a saffron crust dusted in white down and …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Nutty, milky, delicate to strong with age

Piave

Piave is a hard, cooked curd cow's milk cheese from the province of Belluno in the far north of Veneto, named after the Piave river. It carries DOP protection and comes at five ages, from a 20 day Fresco to …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Dense and crystalline
Flavor: Nutty, sweet

Svecia

Svecia is a Swedish semi-hard cow's milk cheese with a creamy consistency, light yellow colour, small irregular holes and a mildly acidic taste. It is sold in wax-covered cylinders weighing 12 to 15 kg (26 to 33 lb) and aged …

Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Semi-hard, creamy soft, firm, somewhat resilient, small irregular holes
Flavor: Mildly acidic, full-bodied

Queso de Flor de Guía

Queso de Flor de Guía is a full-fat or half-fat cheese from Spain, specifically produced in Gáldar, Moya, and Santa María de Guía in Gran Canaria. It is made primarily from Canary Island sheep’s milk, with up to 40% Canary …

Milk Type: Sheep (Canary Island breed), with up to 40% cow and 10% goat milk
Texture: Dense, compact, pasty
Flavor: Aromatic, acidic, and bitter

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

Chevrotin

Chevrotin is a soft goat milk cheese from Savoy in France, made with unpasteurised milk and ripened at least three weeks on pine shelves. It holds an AOC and is known for a full flavor with a sourness that recalls …

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat's Milk
Texture: Soft, unctuous
Flavor: Mild, Caprine

Cacioricotta

Cacioricotta is a southern Italian cheese from Basilicata, Apulia and Calabria, usually made with sheep or goat milk. Its name comes from the hybrid method behind it, which borrows steps from both ricotta and hard cheese making.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Goat's, occasionally Sheep's and Cow's mix
Flavor: Sweet to salty, spicy

Sainte-Maure de Touraine

Sainte-Maure de Touraine is an unpasteurized goat cheese from the Touraine province of France, sold as a small ash-rolled log with a straw running through its centre. The straw carries the AOC seal and a number identifying the producer.

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat’s milk
Texture: Semi-soft

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