Holiday Gift Guide for Cheese Lovers Shop gifts

Explore Cheeses

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

Fourme d'Ambert

Fourme d'Ambert is a semi-hard blue cheese from the Auvergne region of France, sold in a narrow cylinder. One of the country's oldest cheeses, it dates back to Roman times and is inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-hard
Flavor: Mild blue cheese

Wagashi

Wagashi is a soft cow's milk cheese from northern Benin, sold in quantity in Parakou and across the West African savanna. It is mild in flavor and almost always cooked, usually in a sauce eaten with pounded yams or millet …

Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Texture: Compact
Flavor: Mild

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

Bavarian Bergkase

Bavarian Bergkase is a hard, artisan cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk in the Allgaeu Alps of Germany. It has a pale yellow color and a natural rind. The cheese is known for its full-flavored profile, offering nutty and spicy …

Country: Germany
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Hard, artisan
Flavor: Full-flavored, nutty, spicy

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

Queijo de Azeitão

Queijo de Azeitão is a Portuguese cheese from the town of Azeitão, produced in Setúbal, Palmela and Sesimbra. It holds EU PDO status and was named one of the 50 best gastronomic products in the world at the 2014 Great …

Country: Portugal
Milk Type: Sheep
Texture: Semi-Soft
Flavor: Slightly piquant, a mix of sharp and salty

Pecorino di Filiano

Pecorino di Filiano is a firm sheep milk cheese made in the province of Potenza, in Basilicata, southern Italy. It has held protected designation of origin status since 2007, and the village of Filiano celebrates it with a festival each …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Hard
Flavor: Sweet and delicate to strong and savoury

Époisses

Époisses is a pungent soft-paste cow's milk cheese from the village of Époisses in Burgundy, France. Washed in brine and Marc de Bourgogne as it ripens, it has a soft red-orange rind that is edible and a strong smell.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's Milk
Texture: Soft and creamy
Flavor: Subtle, fruity, distinctive, balanced

Slovenský oštiepok

Slovenský oštiepok is a traditional cheese from Slovakia. It is a half-fat, semi-hard cheese that can be either steamed or unsteamed, and smoked or unsmoked. The cheese is made from sheep's milk, a mixture of sheep's and cow's milk, or …

Milk Type: Sheep's milk, mixture of sheep's and cow's milk, or cow's milk
Texture: Solid, firm, slightly fragile, with minor cracks and cavities
Flavor: Savory, mildly piquant to sour, moderately salty

Saint André

Saint-André is a French triple cream cow's milk cheese from Normandy, sold as a small 200 g (7.1 oz) cylinder under a powdery white bloomy rind. Cream added during making takes its fat content to around 75 percent, and it …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft, soft-ripened
Flavor: Buttery, tangy

Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano

Formaggio di fossa is an Italian pit cheese from Sogliano al Rubicone in Emilia-Romagna, made from sheep's, cow's or mixed milk. It is buried in bags inside tufa pits for 80 to 100 days, which gives it a sharp, herbaceous …

Milk Type: Sheep, cow, a mixture of the two, or rarely buffalo
Texture: Semi-hard, crumbles easily.
Flavor: Aromatic, fragrant, intense, slightly pungent for sheep's milk; subtle, delicate, moderately salty, slightly acidic for cow's milk; balanced between salty and sweet for mixed milk.

Crumbly Lancashire

Crumbly Lancashire is an English cow's milk cheese and the newest of the three Lancashire varieties. Made from a single day's milk and matured for 6 to 8 weeks, it is known for a crumbly body and a fresh, high-acid …

Country: England
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Hard
Flavor: Acidic

Colby

Colby is a semihard orange cheese made from cow's milk, first developed in 1885 in Colby, Wisconsin. Skipping the cheddaring step and washing the curd with cold water leaves it moister, softer and milder than cheddar.

Country: United States
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Slightly curdy, softer
Flavor: Mild, milky

Provolone

Provolone is an Italian semi-hard cheese made from cow's milk with a stretched curd. It runs from the very sharp piccante, aged at least four months, to the mild dolce.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-Hard
Flavor: Tangy

Chura Kampo

Chura kampo is a Tibetan dried cheese made from the curds left over from boiling buttermilk. It comes as small hard chunks that hold up to long chewing, and it is an important part of Tibetan cuisine.

Country: China and Tibet
Milk Type: Yak's milk
Texture: Hard, artisan

Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano

Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano is a hard, artisan cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk in Italy. It has a natural rind and is known for its nutty, smooth, and sweet flavor profile. The cheese is traditionally aged, which enhances its rich …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Hard, artisan
Flavor: Nutty, smooth, sweet

Washed Rind

Washed-rind cheese, also called smear-ripened, is cured over and over with brine or mold-bearing agents as it ripens. That feeds Brevibacterium linens on the surface, which gives the cheese its pungent smell, firm rind and distinctive flavor.

Texture: Soft to hard
Flavor: Pungent, distinctive

Canestrato Pugliese

Canestrato Pugliese is a hard cheese from the province of Foggia in Puglia and holds PDO status. It belongs to the Canestrato family, a group of southern Italian hard cheeses made from a mixture of sheep and goat milk.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Ewe's Milk
Texture: Compact, friable
Flavor: Spicy

Pont-l'Évêque

Pont-l'Évêque is a square, washed-rind cow's milk cheese from Normandy and probably the oldest Norman cheese still in production. The pale yellow paste is soft and creamy with a pungent aroma, and the cheese ranks with Brie, Camembert and Roquefort …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's Milk
Texture: Soft to Semi-hard
Flavor: Mild: herbaceous, milky, and creamy

Crottin de Chavignol

Crottin de Chavignol is a small cylindrical goat cheese from the Loire Valley and the claim to fame of the village of Chavignol. It tastes subtle and slightly nutty, and it is sold at three stages of ripening, from a …

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat's milk
Texture: Firm, smooth
Flavor: Light goat to walnut and hazelnut

Brânză de burduf

Brânză de burduf is a salty Romanian cheese made with sheep's milk, sometimes buffalo. It has a strong flavor and a slightly soft texture, and it is packed into a sheep's stomach, a sheep's skin, or a tube of pine …

Country: Romania
Milk Type: Sheep's milk (Turcana and Tiggae sheep)
Texture: Soft to firm and slightly flaky
Flavor: Spicy, sharp

Abondance

Abondance is a semi-hard raw cow's milk cheese from the Haute-Savoie department of France, named after the commune where it is made. A wheel weighs about 10 kg (22 lb), and the cheese has held AOC status since 1990.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-Hard
Flavor: Savory, yet fruity with an intense "umami" taste

Queijo Serra da Estrela

Serra da Estrela is a sheep's milk cheese from the mountains of central Portugal, protected as a PDO in the European Union and the UK. It is coagulated with thistle instead of rennet, and its paste runs from nearly semi-liquid …

Country: Portugal
Milk Type: Sheep
Texture: Closed, slightly buttery, creamy and smooth (standard); closed or with some eyes, slightly dry crumbly body (Velho)
Flavor: Smooth, clean, and slightly acidic (standard); pleasant, lingering, clean, strong to slightly strong and slightly spicy/salty (Velho)

Danablu (Danish Blue)

Danablu, also known as Danish Blue, is a semi-soft, blue-veined cheese originating from Denmark. Made from cow's milk, this cheese is recognized for its creamy white appearance marked by blue veins. It offers a salty, tangy flavor that provides a …

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

Bierkase

Bierkase, better known as Weisslacker, is a salted, surface-ripened cow's milk cheese from Germany that ripens for seven months. It smells as powerful as Limburger but tastes mild, and it is usually eaten with beer.

Country: Germany
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-soft, smear-ripened
Flavor: Salty, tangy