Emily In France Exclusive 🇫🇷 5 Amazing American Cheeses to Buy

From the desk of an expat.

For as much as I adore French cheese, whenever visiting guests ask me where to track down their favorite fromages in America, I offer the same, simple answer: Don’t.

American tariffs on European imports like cheese remain uncertain, for now, but even before this threat, I held the line. Not only are there environmental factors to consider when sourcing food from the other side of the world, but cheese, which is a living, ever-evolving product, suffers more than many other products during shipping – especially when it comes to fresh cheeses like chèvre or soft cheeses like Brie. Add to this the fact that (at least for the moment), raw milk cheeses aged fewer than two months are illegal to import into the U.S. for sale, and any Camembert or Reblochon you find Stateside will pale in comparison to what you can find in France.

Luckily, there’s another option for American cheese lovers: craft American cheese.

I’m not talking Kraft singles (though they’ve certainly got their place – mostly on grilled cheese sandwiches). No, I’m thinking about the countless small cheesemakers across America innovating in the cheese space.

If you ask me, American cheesemakers really shine in two categories in particular: blue-veined cheeses and pressed cheeses like cheddar. But that’s far from the full scope of the American artisan cheese offerings. If you know where to look, you can find great American examples in any family of cheese, from bloomy-rinded Mt-Tam to washed-rind Oma.

In compiling the list below, I’ve tried to highlight widely available cheeses, ones you can find at any well-sized supermarket or Whole Foods. But there are countless small producers making excellent cheeses across the country. I hope my American readers will share the wealth with other turophiles in the comments!

Humboldt Fog

Story time! One New Year’s Eve a few years ago, my British girlfriend and I decided to have a cheese plate for dinner. We each contributed two cheeses from our respective homelands: She brought Cornish Yarg and Gorwydd Caerphilly, while I carefully packed up Rogue River Blue and Cypress Grove’s Humboldt Fog in a Tupperware and flew across the Atlantic with it sitting on my knees. With my very first bite of this Californian goat cheese, I remembered what makes American chèvre so different from French.

Humboldt is bright, lemony, and fairly assertive in flavor – and that’s no shade. Where many French goat cheeses are more muted and floral, Humboldt boasts a distinctive goaty tang. The line of ash through the middle is a gorgeous homage to Morbier as well as an evocation of the fog over Humboldt Bay for which the cheese is named. With its lovely cream line under the rind and its dense, fudgy texture, it’s undoubtedly one of my favorite American cheeses.

Rogue River Blue

My other contribution on that New Year’s Eve was Rogue River Blue, which took first place in the 2019/20 World Cheese Awards. (I judged this contest in 2022 – but that’s another story.)

This cow’s milk blue cheese is a seasonal creation made in Oregon’s Rogue Valley with the rich milk that comes in the period of regrowth just before the winter. Aged for just under a year, the cheese is hand-wrapped in organic, biodynamic Syrah grape leaves that have soaked in pear spirits, which impart a rich, fruity, boozy character to the cheese.