The AnyCheese Holiday Gift Guide

Explore Cheeses

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

Vacherin Mont-d'Or

Vacherin Mont d'Or is a soft, seasonal cow's milk cheese from the Jura region of Switzerland and France. It is bound in a strip of spruce bark, sold in a round spruce box, and often warmed in that box and …

Country: Switzerland
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Soft

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

Aged Goat Cheese

Aged Goat Cheese is made from goat's milk and is known for its firm texture and crumbly consistency. It typically has a sharp, tangy flavor with a hint of nuttiness. The aging process intensifies its taste, giving it a slightly …

Milk Type: Goat

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

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

Mâconnais

Mâconnais is a small goat's milk cheese from Burgundy, France, sometimes made with a mix of goat's and cow's milk. It is shaped like a little truncated cone and has held AOC certification since 2005.

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat's milk
Texture: Soft, homogenous, creamy, firm, smooth
Flavor: Salty, tangy

Roquefort

Roquefort is a blue cheese made from raw Lacaune sheep's milk in southern France. Only cheese ripened in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may carry the name. It is tangy and creamy, with no rind and a sharp bite …

Country: France
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Moist, very creamy
Flavor: Mild to strong

Queso de Acehúche

Queso de Acehúche is a pressed uncooked cheese from the province of Cáceres in Extremadura, Spain, made with whole raw goat's milk. It has held a European PDO since 2022 and is known for its soft elastic paste and yellow …

Milk Type: Goat
Texture: Semi-hard, elastic, slightly moist
Flavor: Low saltiness, moderate acidity, low bitterness, low pungency, more pronounced in aged cheeses

American

American cheese is a processed cheese made from cheddar, Colby, or similar cheeses with sodium citrate added so it pasteurizes without separating. It is mild, salty, and medium-firm, and it melts at a low temperature, which is why it lands …

Country: United States
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-soft, processed
Flavor: Mild, salty

Robiola

Robiola is an Italian soft-ripened cheese from the Langhe, made with varying proportions of cow's, goat's and sheep's milk. Its taste and look shift by producer, from the rindless Robiola di Roccaverano to the bloomy-rinded Robiola Lombardia.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow, goat, sheep
Texture: Soft-ripened, creamy
Flavor: Tangy, mildly sour

Queijo mestiço de Tolosa

Queijo Mestiço de Tolosa is a ripened, semi-soft cheese from Portugal. It is made from a mixture of ewe's milk and goat's milk in varying proportions. The cheese has a yellowish color with a few small holes and a slightly …

Milk Type: Ewe's milk and goat's milk
Texture: Malleable to hard, consistent, not very tight, with a few small holes
Flavor: Slightly vigorous, clean, and piquant

Edam

Edam is a semi-hard Dutch cheese named after the town of Edam in North Holland, sold in flat-ended spheres under a red wax rind. It hardens rather than spoils, which made it the world's most popular cheese from the 14th …

Country: Netherlands
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Rubber-textured to crystalline
Flavor: Sweet, milky, nutty, buttery

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

Maiorchino

Maiorchino is a hard sheep's milk cheese from the province of Messina in Sicily, sold in wheels of about 10 to 12 kg (22 to 26 lb). It is a listed Italian traditional food, known for a delicate flavor that …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Raw whole sheep's milk, goat's milk (max 25%)
Texture: Hard
Flavor: Spicy with age

Emmental

Emmental is a yellow, medium-hard Swiss cheese from the Emme Valley, known for the natural holes that run through it. The taste is savoury but mild. It is eaten cold in chunks or slices and melted into dishes such as …

Country: Switzerland
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Hard or medium-hard
Flavor: Nutty, sweet

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

Scamorza

Scamorza is a southern Italian pasta filata cheese, usually made from cow's milk. It is tied with string and hung to dry into a pear-like shape, sold unsmoked or smoked, and works as a substitute for mozzarella in most dishes.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-soft

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

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

Paneer

Paneer is a fresh, non-aged cheese from South Asia, made by curdling cow or buffalo milk with acid instead of rennet. It does not melt, so it holds its shape in curries, fritters and skewered dishes like paneer tikka.

Country: Bangladesh and India
Milk Type: Cow's or water buffalo's milk
Texture: Semisoft, crumbly
Flavor: Mild, slightly milky

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

Torta del Casar

Torta del Casar is a sheep's milk cheese from Extremadura, Spain, curdled with cardoon thistle rather than animal rennet. Aged at least sixty days, it goes creamy in the center, so it is eaten by slicing off the top and …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Very soft and spreadable
Flavor: Rich, slightly bitter

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

Morbier

Morbier is a semi-soft cows' milk cheese from Franche-Comté in eastern France, named after the village of Morbier. A thin black layer of ash runs horizontally through its ivory paste, left over from the days when evening and morning curds …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Smooth and tender
Flavor: Fruity, yogurt, vanilla, milky, fudge

Telemea de Ibăneşti

Telemea de Ibănești is a Romanian brined cheese from the Gurghiu Valley, part of the telemea family that was traditionally made from sheep's milk and is now often made from cow's milk. The EU gave it Protected Designation of Origin …

Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Compact, firm, smooth, and buttery
Flavor: Slightly sweet, sour, and salty

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