30 cheeses

South Holland, Netherlands

Left for years, Gouda turns into butterscotch with a crunch.

Allgäu, Bavaria, Germany

Bavaria’s alpine wheel — Gruyère’s quieter neighbour across the border.

Appenzell, Switzerland

Washed in a herb-and-wine brine whose recipe is a genuine trade secret.

Veneto / Trentino, Italy

The aged, skimmed-milk Asiago — nothing like the soft one in the deli case.

Prince Edward Island, Canada

Island milk, red soil, and a cheddar bound in cloth the old way.

Lancashire, England

Made by blending two or three days’ curd — a technique nobody else uses.

Savoie / Beaufortain, France

Alpine summer milk, pressed in a beech hoop that gives it its waist.

West Midlands, England

Britain’s best sheep’s-milk cheese, moulded in kitchen colanders.

Franche-Comté / Jura, France

France’s most-produced AOP cheese, and no two wheels taste alike.

Michoacán, Mexico

Mexico’s salty grating cheese, aged in the hills of Michoacán.

Emmental, Bern, Switzerland

The one with the holes — carbon dioxide, from a bacterium, over months.

Po Valley, Italy

Parmigiano’s older, larger, gentler cousin from across the Po Valley.

Crete & Naxos, Greece

Greece’s take on Gruyère, made mostly from sheep’s milk.

Basque Country / Navarre, Spain

Basque shepherds’ cheese, smoked because the huts had no chimneys.

Fribourg, Switzerland

No holes. Whatever the cartoons told you, that is Emmentaler.

Leiden, Netherlands

Gouda’s spiced cousin, packed with cumin and caraway seed.

Menorca, Spain

A square-edged Balearic cheese, rubbed orange with paprika and olive oil.

La Mancha, Spain

Manchega sheep, La Mancha scrub, and a rind patterned by esparto grass.

Lille / Flanders, France

A bright orange sphere with a pitted rind, courtesy of live mites.

Basque Country / Béarn, France

Basque shepherd’s cheese: sheep’s milk, sweet, and endlessly easy to eat.

Emilia-Romagna, Italy

A 38 kg wheel, twelve months minimum, and a hammer test before it can be sold.

Lazio / Sardinia, Italy

Roman legion rations. Salty enough that a little is the whole point.

Wisconsin, United States

The most-decorated cheese in American history, made only from summer pasture milk.

Leicestershire, England

Cheddar-adjacent, dyed with annatto since farmers wanted their milk to look richer.