The AnyCheese Holiday Gift Guide

Explore Cheeses

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

Gruyere-Style

Gruyere-Style cheese is a firm, cow's milk cheese inspired by the traditional Swiss Gruyere. It has a smooth, dense texture with small holes scattered throughout. The flavor is rich and nutty, with a slight sweetness and a hint of saltiness. …

Crottin-Style

Crottin-style cheese is a small, round goat cheese known for its dense texture and slightly tangy flavor. It is typically aged, developing a firm, crumbly interior and a natural rind that can range from white to speckled with blue molds. …

Queijo Terrincho

Queijo Terrincho is a traditional cheese from Portugal, specifically from the Terra Quente region. It is made from the raw milk of Churra da Terra Quente sheep. The cheese is known for its distinct flavor and aroma, which become more …

Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Close and even, slightly buttery for Queijo Terrincho; hard, well-formed for Queijo Terrincho Velho.
Flavor: Intense smell, mild and clean for Queijo Terrincho; strong, balanced mixture of different smells for Queijo Terrincho Velho.

Stichelton

Stichelton is an English blue cheese made in Nottinghamshire from unpasteurised cow's milk and calf rennet. It is made the way Blue Stilton once was, but since Stilton's protected status requires pasteurised milk, it took an older spelling of the …

Country: England, Great Britain and United Kingdom
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-Soft
Flavor: Complex

Graviera Naxou

Graviera Naxou is a yellow hard cheese from the Greek island of Naxos, made with pasteurized cow's milk and up to 20 percent sheep's milk. It is known for its delicate, slightly sharp aroma and its PDO status, held since …

Country: Greece
Milk Type: Predominantly cow's milk, sheep’s or goat’s milk (up to 20%)
Texture: Elastic

Cheddar

Cheddar is a relatively hard, off-white to orange cow's milk cheese from the village of Cheddar in Somerset, South West England. The name is not protected, so it is made worldwide, and it is the UK's most popular cheese at …

Country: England
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-Hard
Flavor: Mild to sharp, buttery to brothy and savory

Chabichou du Poitou

Chabichou du Poitou is a goat cheese from the north of Nouvelle-Aquitaine in France, shaped like a small cylinder called a bonde. It is aged 10 to 20 days and is the only soft-ripened goat cheese that PDO rules allow …

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat's milk
Texture: Soft, creamy to brittle
Flavor: Slightly salty

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

Queijo da Beira Baixa

Queijo da Beira Baixa is a Portuguese raw-milk cheese made from sheep milk, goat milk or a blend of both, sold as Amarelo, Castelo Branco or Picante. It has a protected designation of origin and an intense, clean flavor that …

Milk Type: Sheep and Goat
Texture: Semi-hard, semi-soft, hard, or very hard (depending on type)
Flavor: Intense, clean, slightly acidic, spicy, and salty (depending on type)

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)

Maasdam

Maasdam is a Dutch cheese made in the style of Swiss Emmental, aged at least four weeks and marked by holes that form as it ripens. It tastes nutty and sweet, and it is softer than Emmental because it holds …

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

Danish Blue

Danablu, sold as Danish Blue Cheese in North America, is a semi-soft blue-veined cheese made from full fat cow's milk and homogenized cream. It is known for its sharp, salty taste and its EU protected status, which limits production to …

Country: Denmark
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Semi-soft, Blue-veined
Flavor: Salty, tangy

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. …

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)

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

Caciocavallo-Style

Caciocavallo-Style cheese is a traditional southern Italian cheese made from cow's milk. It is typically shaped like a teardrop and is aged by hanging in pairs over a wooden beam. This cheese is known for its smooth, firm texture and …

Bitto

Bitto is a raw-milk PDO cheese from the alpine pastures of Sondrio in Lombardy, made only between 1 June and 30 September from cow's milk, sometimes with up to 10 percent goat's milk. Young wheels taste mild and sweet, and …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk primarily, with non-mandatory addition of raw goat’s milk up to 10%
Texture: Fine-grained, sometimes with very few small holes; hard cheese from one year
Flavor: Mild and sweet when young, stronger and spicier with age

Manouri

Manouri is a Greek semi-soft fresh whey cheese made from goat or sheep milk as a by-product of feta production. Cream added to the whey makes it richer and far less salty than feta.

Country: Greece
Milk Type: Goat's or sheep's milk
Texture: Smooth, dense
Flavor: Rich, milky, tangy, slightly citrusy

Chèvre (Goat Cheese)

Chèvre is the French name for cheese made from goat's milk. The classic French style is soft and creamy under a light colored rind, tart from the fatty acids in goat milk, and is sometimes served hot as chèvre chaud.

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat
Texture: Crumbly , Soft
Flavor: Tangy

Bleu des Causses

Bleu des Causses is a French blue cheese made from whole cow's milk and ripened three to six months in the limestone caves of the Gorges du Tarn. Many people treat it as a gentler cow's milk counterpart to Roquefort.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Texture: Semisoft; Blue-veined
Flavor: Sweet yet spicy, not too salty or bitter

Dorset Blue Cheese

Dorset Blue is an English cow's milk blue cheese protected by a European designation of origin. Also sold as Dorset Blue Vinney, it is known for moderate blue veining and a piquant flavor that stops short of being strong.

Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Firm
Flavor: Piquant, peppery, mild to strong

Fontina

Fontina is a cow's milk cheese from Italy's Aosta Valley, made there since the 12th century. It runs semisoft to hard, tastes creamy and nutty with earthy, mushroomy notes, and melts well enough to carry a fondue.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Creamy , Smooth
Flavor: Mild, Buttery, Nutty

Queso Tetilla

Tetilla is a cow's milk cheese from Galicia, Spain, molded into a cone with a nipple-like peak that gives it its name. Soft, creamy and pale yellow, it is a staple of Galician cooking and is often eaten as dessert.

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Soft to semi-cured
Flavor: Milky, slightly sour, mildly salty

Caciocavallo Podolico

Caciocavallo podolico is the caciocavallo made only from the milk of Podolica cows, by traditional methods and only in certain seasons. It is a table cheese served at the end of a meal, and long aging brings out aromas of …

Milk Type: Podolica cow’s milk
Texture: Firm, basically fibrous
Flavor: Savory, herbaceous, intense

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

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