Walk up to any cheese counter and it can feel like a pop quiz. So many wedges, so many names, so little time. Good news: almost every cheese out there fits into a handful of families, and once you know them, picking a cheese gets a whole lot easier. Here are the main types of cheese, with the Wisconsin favorites we love in each one.
Quick answer: Most cheesemongers sort cheese into seven families: fresh, soft-ripened, semi-soft, hard, blue, washed rind and flavored. The family tells you how a cheese was made and aged, which tells you a lot about its texture, flavor and how to serve it.
How many types of cheese are there?
Nobody keeps an official count. Estimates run well past a thousand named varieties around the world, and new ones show up every year as makers experiment. That's why cheese people group them into families instead. Learn the seven families below and you can make sense of almost any cheese you meet.
Fresh cheese
Fresh cheeses are young, unaged and usually soft, mild and milky. They're made, packed and eaten within days or weeks, so they taste bright and clean rather than deep and complex.
- Cheese curds: the Wisconsin snack of legend. Curds are the fresh pieces of young cheddar before they get pressed into blocks, and the fresh ones squeak.
- Mozzarella and ricotta: pizza night and lasagna's best friends.
- Cream cheese and chèvre (fresh goat cheese): spreadable, tangy and perfect for cheese balls and dips.
Serve fresh cheese cold and soon. It doesn't keep long, and that's part of its charm. Fresh cheeses are also the easiest to cook with: they melt gently, blend into dips and soak up whatever herbs or spices you throw at them.
Soft-ripened cheese
These are the cheeses with a soft, bloomy white rind, like Brie (yes, our namesake) and Camembert. The rind is edible and helps ripen the cheese from the outside in, so the center gets creamier and more buttery as it ages.
Let soft-ripened cheese sit out for about 30 to 60 minutes before serving. Cold Brie is fine. Room temperature Brie is a whole mood.
Semi-soft cheese
Semi-soft cheeses are smooth, sliceable and great melters. This family is a big one in Wisconsin.
- Colby: named for Colby, Wisconsin, where it was first made in the late 1800s. Mild, moist and a total crowd-pleaser.
- Brick: another Wisconsin original, named for the bricks once used to press it. Mild when young and more pungent with age.
- Monterey Jack, Muenster and Havarti: mellow, creamy and made for sandwiches.
Our Basil Jack cheese lives right here: a creamy, semi-soft jack with fragrant basil that makes any board taste like summer.
Hard cheese
Hard cheeses are pressed and aged longer, which drives out moisture and builds big flavor. The longer they age, the sharper, nuttier and more crumbly they get, and some develop those crunchy little crystals cheese lovers go nuts for.
- Cheddar: Wisconsin's signature. Young cheddar is mild and creamy. Aged cheddar is sharp, tangy and bold.
- Parmesan and other Italian-style hard cheeses: perfect for grating over pasta or snacking in chunks.
- Gouda and Swiss: sweet, nutty and great on a board or melted.
Cheddar is our happy place, so we gave it its own shelf. Browse our Wisconsin cheddar lineup for everything from bourbon to blueberry.
Blue cheese
Blue cheeses get their blue-green veins from a mold added during cheesemaking. The cheese is pierced so air can get inside, and the blue grows through those little channels. Expect tangy, salty and bold, from creamy and spreadable to firm and crumbly.
- Gorgonzola: the Italian-style blue. Our Midnight in Milan gorgonzola is dark, dreamy and begging for a drizzle of honey.
- Blue goat cheese: a softer, tangier take on blue. The Velvet Muse is our smooth talker.
Not sure you're a blue cheese person? Try it with something sweet, like honey, pears or fig jam. It changes minds.
Washed rind cheese
Washed rind cheeses are rinsed with brine, beer, wine or spirits while they age. That bath encourages friendly bacteria that give them an orange-ish rind and a famously strong aroma. The bark is worse than the bite: the inside is often mellow, meaty and rich.
Limburger is the classic, and Green County, Wisconsin is still known for it. Aged brick cheese leans this direction too. These are the cheeses for adventurous eaters, rye bread and a cold beer.
Flavored cheese
Flavored cheeses start with a base cheese, often cheddar or jack, and blend in peppers, herbs, fruit, wine or spirits. This is where Wisconsin cheesemakers get playful, and where we have the most fun.
- Spicy: 6 Pepper Cheddar, creamy cheddar with a slow, friendly burn.
- Boozy: Bourbon Cheddar and Merlot Cheddar.
- Sweet: Blueberry Maple Cheddar, creamy and tangy with a little sweetness.
- Savory: Porketta Chedda, Olive Cheddar and Portabella & Chive.
Flavored cheeses are the easiest way to make a board feel personal. Pick one spicy, one sweet and one classic, and you've got conversation starters on every corner.
Wisconsin favorites to start with
If you're building a board and want to taste your way across the families, try this lineup:
- A fresh cheese (curds or cream cheese) for something mild
- A semi-soft cheese like Colby or Basil Jack
- An aged or flavored cheddar for bold flavor
- A blue for the brave
Lay them out from mildest to boldest and taste in that order, so the blue doesn't steamroll the Colby. Add crackers, a little fruit, a jam and some salami, and let guests wander.
How to tell the types of cheese apart at the counter
Not sure which family a cheese belongs to? Ask yourself three things. How soft is it? Fresh and soft-ripened cheeses give when you press them, while hard cheeses don't budge. What does the rind look like? A fluffy white rind means soft-ripened, a sticky orange one usually means washed rind, and no rind at all often means fresh. Can you see veins or add-ins? Blue streaks mean blue cheese, and flecks of pepper, herbs or fruit mean flavored. And when in doubt, ask your cheesemonger. That's what we're here for.
Four cheeses, four textures, zero boring bites. Shop the full artisan cheese collection to mix and match, and it ships nationwide (cheese takes a break in June, July and August so every order arrives fresh). Local to River Falls? Choose pickup at checkout.
Curious why so many of these cheeses come from our home state? Read why Wisconsin is known for cheese, or find more answers over on Ask the Cheesemonger.
