The AnyCheese Holiday Gift Guide

Explore Cheeses

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

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

Kefalograviera

Kefalograviera is a hard Greek table cheese made from sheep's milk or a mix of sheep's and goat's milk. It tastes salty, smells rich, and shows up most often fried as saganaki or grated over pasta.

Country: Greece
Milk Type: Sheep’s milk or mixtures with up to 10% goat’s milk; sometimes cow's and sheep's milk (60:40)
Texture: Firm, elastic
Flavor: Pleasant

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

Coulommiers

Coulommiers is a soft ripened cow's milk cheese from the town of Coulommiers in Seine-et-Marne, France. It is a smaller, thicker cousin of Brie with a nuttier flavor, sold as a disc under a white bloomy rind.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Fresh, creamy to fine, stronger

Crescenza

Crescenza, also called stracchino, is an Italian cow's milk cheese from Lombardy, Tuscany, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Liguria. It is eaten very young and known for a rindless, very soft and creamy body with a mild, slightly acidic flavor.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Mild, slightly acidic

Fourme de Montbrison

Fourme de Montbrison is a cow's milk blue cheese from the Forez mountains in southern France, sold in tall cylinders with an orange-brown rind. It is extremely mild for a blue cheese, with a dry taste, and has held its …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Texture: Dry, slightly rough
Flavor: Mild, refined

Paški Sir

Paški sir is a hard sheep milk cheese from the Croatian island of Pag, where salt-laden wind shapes the plants the sheep eat. It carries Protected Designation of Origin status and has won gold and Super Gold at the World …

Country: Croatia
Milk Type: Sheep’s milk
Texture: Slightly elastic, granular
Flavor: Salty, savory, tangy

Caciotta

Caciotta is an Italian cheese made from cow, sheep, goat, or water buffalo milk. It ripens for a short time and comes in small cylindrical wheels with a soft yellow rind, a pale body, and a mild flavor.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's, goat's, sheep's or water buffalo's milk
Texture: Semi-soft, artisan
Flavor: Mild

Vastedda della Valle del Belice

Vastedda della Valle del Belice is a traditional Sicilian cheese that takes its name from vastedda, a Sicilian word also used for a Palermo bread. The Italian agriculture ministry lists it as a prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Raw whole sheep’s milk
Flavor: Lightly sourish but not spicy

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

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

Gaperon

Gaperon is a French cow's milk cheese from the Auvergne, shaped into a dome and flavored with cracked peppercorns and pink garlic. It tastes tart when young and turns soft, buttery, and strongly garlicky as it matures.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Sharp

Brillat-Savarin

Brillat-Savarin is a French triple cream cow's milk cheese with a natural bloomy rind and at least 72% fat in dry matter. Made mainly in Normandy, it tastes luscious, creamy and faintly sour, and it is also sold fresh, closer …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semisoft
Flavor: Luxurious, tangy, sour, mushroomy softened butter

Valençay

Valençay is an unpasteurised goat cheese from the province of Berry in central France, shaped like a truncated pyramid and dusted with charcoal. It tastes fresh and citric when young, and nutty with age.

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat’s milk
Texture: Fresh: fine and creamy; Mature: slightly crumbly
Flavor: Goat, undergrowth, floral hints

Mozzarella

Mozzarella is a semi-soft, non-aged cheese from southern Italy, made by stretching and kneading the curd. Cow's milk versions are called fior di latte, buffalo milk versions mozzarella di bufala, and it tops most pizza.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's, goat's, sheep's or water buffalo's milk
Texture: Soft, creamy
Flavor: Mild, milky

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

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

Ackawi

Akkawi is a white brine cheese from the Levant, named after the port city of Acre. It is usually made from pasteurized cow's milk, cured two days in salted whey brine, and eaten with soft flatbread or on its own …

Country: Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East and Syria
Milk Type: Cow's, goat's or sheep's milk
Texture: Soft, brined
Flavor: Mild, milky, salty

Alpine-Style

Alpine-style cheese is inspired by the traditional cheeses produced in the mountainous regions of Switzerland, France, and Austria. These cheeses are typically made using cow's milk and are known for their firm texture and nutty, buttery flavors. They often have …

Cheshire

Cheshire is a dense, crumbly cheese from the English county of Cheshire and its neighbouring counties. It is the UK's largest-selling crumbly cheese and is sold in white, red and blue versions.

Country: United Kingdom
Milk Type: Cow's Milk
Texture: Open, flaky
Flavor: Tangy, savory

Queso de Valdeón

Queso de Valdeón is a Spanish blue cheese made in Posada de Valdeón, in the northeast of León province. It holds PGI status and is known for a very intense blue flavor that stays less biting than that of its …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Cow’s, or a mix of cow’s, sheep’s, and goat’s milk
Texture: Low elasticity, crumbly, melts in the mouth
Flavor: Intense, salty, piquant, lightly ardent

Gamonedo

Gamonéu is a fatty, lightly smoked Spanish cheese made in parts of Asturias from a blend of cow, goat and sheep milk. It holds a Protected Designation of Origin and comes in two forms: del Puertu from the high passes …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Raw cow’s, sheep’s, and goat’s milk, or any combination. Breeds: Friesian, Asturiana de los Valles, etc.
Texture: Harder and drier (del Puertu), richer and creamier (del Valle)
Flavor: Buttery, slightly nutty

Feta

Feta is a Greek brined white cheese made from sheep's milk or a mix of sheep and goat's milk. It is crumbly and slightly grainy, tangy and salty, and it anchors dishes like Greek salad and spanakopita.

Country: Greece
Milk Type: Goat's and sheep's milk
Texture: Soft, white, aged in brine
Flavor: Sharp to mild

Cotija

Cotija is an aged Mexican cheese from the town of Cotija in Michoacán, made by hand from cow's milk. It is white, firm and salty, and it is used crumbled or grated over tacos, soups, salads and elote.

Country: Mexico
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Hard, artisan
Flavor: Salty, strong

Stilton

Stilton is an English cheese made in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, in a blue version and a white one. The blue kind gets its veins from Penicillium roqueforti. Both hold PDO status, so no cheese made elsewhere can use the …

Country: England
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Hard, blue-veined
Flavor: Spicy, strong

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