Holiday Gift Guide for Cheese Lovers Shop gifts

Explore Cheeses

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

Sbrinz

Sbrinz is an extra hard cow's milk cheese from Central Switzerland, made in only 42 dairies. It ripens for at least 16 months and is usually grated over pasta or broken into small pieces to eat with wine.

Country: Switzerland
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Extra hard
Flavor: Unique

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

Queso de Murcia al vino

Queso de Murcia al vino is a fatty goat's milk cheese from the province of Murcia in south-east Spain, with a Protected Designation of Origin. It is made from unpasteurized milk of Murcian goats, and its rind is washed in …

Milk Type: Goat’s milk
Texture: Firm, elastic, uniform, creamy, unctuous
Flavor: Low-to-medium intensity, persistent

Queijo de Évora

Queijo de Évora is a PDO ewe's milk cheese from Évora, in Portugal's Alentejo. It is cured, hard or semi-hard, yellowish in color, and known for a slightly acidic flavor with a light peppery bite.

Milk Type: Ewe's milk
Texture: Semi-hard
Flavor: Not Specified

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

Quartirolo Lombardo

Quartirolo Lombardo is a PDO cow's milk cheese from Lombardy in northern Italy, made since the 10th century. It is known for its rectangular block shape, its crumbly white paste, and a slightly sour flavor that grows more aromatic with …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: White and firm, granular, softens with ripening
Flavor: Slightly sour, aromatic

Swaledale Ewes' Cheese

Swaledale Ewes Cheese is a full-fat hard cheese made from ewe’s milk in Swaledale, North Yorkshire. It has a cylindrical shape, a firm and crumbly texture, and a natural white color. The cheese is either coated in a greenish-blue-grey mold …

Milk Type: Sheep
Texture: Hard, firm, crumbly

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

Livarot

Livarot is a soft, pungent washed-rind cheese from Normandy, made with Normande cow's milk and protected by an AOC since 1975. Rings of dried reedmace circle its orange rind, which is why it also goes by the name colonel.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Chewy, Melts in the mouth
Flavor: Pungent

Bohinjski sir

Bohinjski sir is a Slovenian hard cheese from the Bohinj area, first made in 1873 using Emmental technology. It has a dry golden rind, straw yellow paste with small round eyes, and a nutty taste that turns piquant with age.

Country: Slovenia
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-hard
Flavor: Full-flavored

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

Pljevlja

Pljevlja is a traditional cheese from the northern region of Montenegro, made from cow's milk. It has a rich, creamy texture and a strong, salty flavor. Often served as part of a mezze platter, Pljevlja cheese is enjoyed with bread, …

Country: Montenegro
Milk Type: Sheep’s milk, cow’s milk, mixed
Texture: Soft to semihard

Domiati

Domiati is the most common cheese in Egypt, a soft white salty cheese usually made from buffalo or cow milk. Salt goes into the milk before the rennet, which sets it apart from feta and gives the cheese its sharp, …

Country: Egypt
Milk Type: Primarily buffalo, but also cow's, goat's, etc.
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Salty

American Gruyere

American Gruyere is a Gruyere-style cheese made in the United States, with Wisconsin producing the most of it. A U.S. court ruled in 2021 that gruyere is a generic cheese name, which leaves American makers free to use it.

Country: United States
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Dense , Smooth
Flavor: Mild, Nutty, Slightly Buttery

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 …

Langres

Langres is a cow's milk cheese from the plateau of Langres in Champagne-Ardenne, France. It is a small cylinder with a Penicillium candidum rind tinted orange by annatto, known for the concave dent in its top called the fontaine.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semisoft
Flavor: Creamy, nutty

Queso Zamorano

Zamorano is a hard sheep's milk cheese from the province of Zamora, Spain, typically aged about six months in cellars. Wheels run about 11 kg (24 lb), carry a zigzag pattern on the rind, and taste creamy and nutty with …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Firm and compact
Flavor: Intense, nutty, buttery, slightly piquant

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

Queso Garrotxa

Garrotxa is a pasteurized goat cheese from Catalonia, Spain, made from Murciana goat milk and aged in caves. It is known for its powdery gray-blue rind, firm semi-soft body, ivory interior, and mildly acidic, earthy flavor.

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Goat
Texture: Firm, smooth
Flavor: Mild lactic notes

Oka

Oka is a semi-soft washed rind cow's milk cheese from Oka, Quebec, made by Trappist monks starting in 1893 and now by Agropur. It is known for its copper-orange rind, pungent smell, and soft creamy taste with nutty, fruity notes.

Country: Canada
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Semi-Soft
Flavor: Soft and creamy, nutty and fruity

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

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

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

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

Caciocavallo Palermitano

Caciocavallo Palermitano is a variant of Caciocavallo from the Palermo region of Sicily. It is made using traditional methods that include hanging the cheese in pairs tied with rope, hence the name "caciocavallo" (cheese on horseback). This cheese has a …

Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Texture: Firm
Flavor: Spicy