Every cheese

Campania, Italy

Water-buffalo milk, stretched by hand, eaten the same day if possible.

Alsace / Vosges, France

The Vosges monks’ cheese: enormous nose, sweet-tempered paste.

Oka, Quebec, Canada

Brought to Quebec in 1893 by a Trappist monk fleeing France.

Basque Country / Béarn, France

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

Northern India, India

Acid-set, unaged, rennet-free, and it never melts.

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.

Normandy, France

A square Norman washed rind that has been made since the 1100s.

Lombardy / Veneto, Italy

Stretched curd hung on ropes and aged with kid rennet until it bites back.

Serra da Estrela, Portugal

Portugal’s oldest cheese, also set with thistle, also eaten with a spoon.

Oaxaca, Mexico

Stretched into a rope and wound into a ball, like mozzarella’s cousin in Oaxaca.

Valais, Switzerland

A cheese named after the act of scraping it off the fire onto a plate.

Haute-Savoie, France

Born of tax evasion in the Alps, now the soul of tartiflette.

Leicestershire, England

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

Nationwide, Italy

Whey cooked a second time — the thrift cheese that outlived its thrift.

Oregon, United States

Wrapped in brandy-soaked vine leaves. Named world’s best cheese in 2019.

Aveyron, France

Sheep’s milk, natural caves, and a salt level that stops the conversation.

Auvergne, France

Volcanic pasture, rye-straw cellars, and a rind that smells of mushrooms.

Nottinghamshire, England

A raw-milk Stilton in all but name — the name is the one thing it cannot have.

Lombardy / Val Taleggio, Italy

A square washed rind from Lombardy that smells far worse than it behaves.

Savoie, France

A low-fat farmhouse leftover that turned out to be delicious.

Extremadura, Spain

Set with wild thistle instead of rennet, and eaten with a spoon through the lid.

Bernese Jura, Switzerland

Shaved into rosettes with a hand-cranked blade, because slicing ruins it.