![]() Luckily, it’s easier than ever to shop for artisan cheese, whether you’re looking at the supermarket or shopping online. With so many styles, from mild types like cottage cheese to funky blue-veined cheeses, how do you know which cheese to purchase? Knowing which cheeses to buy, whether for a tasting party or just for snacking, can feel like a challenge. Even if you’re a seasoned connoisseur with a Grotto of your own stuffed full of amazing wedges, we bet you’ll learn something new about your favorite food. If you’re a budding cheese connoisseur, this guide is a great place to start leveling up your cheese game. We have decades of experience as cheesemongers, cheesemakers, and cheese eaters to share, so we figured we’d bring it all together in one big guide on how to live your best cheese life! There is a growing number of people, though, who are choosing to buy handmade cheeses made using traditional methods.Here at Cheese Grotto, we’re all about giving you the knowledge you need to buy, store, eat, and enjoy great cheese. There will always be a market for mass-produced cheese as it is convenient and less expensive. In the same way coffee lovers choose freshly ground coffee over instant, those who’ve developed a taste for fine cheeses opt for artisan types. Artisan Cheeses are Like Fine Wines or Freshly Ground Coffee It could be that consumers are becoming more educated in the taste of finer foods. However, despite these added costs the popularity of artisan cheese is growing. Naturally, this has to be passed on to the customer. Rising fuel prices have an effect on shipping costs, reducing the profit margin on sales. Small scale cheese making businesses, where products are perishable, tend to use carriers like Fed Ex. Handmade labels with a company logo can be costly. Labeling has to be taken into account as well. The quality and type may vary, but cloth will be more expensive. Instead of plastic wrapping used on most massed produced cheeses, artisan cheeses are wrapped using cloth. This is a significant difference and prices have to reflect this if the business owner is to make a profit. It costs around 20 cents a pound to produce cheddar in a large scale dairy farm, compared to around 4 dollars a pound at a small scale dairy farm producing artisan cheese. It can cost three times more to age any artisan cheese than those which are massed produced. Aging handmade cheeses requires more care and the time spent sitting on shelves costs money. Added to that, cheese made from raw milk must be aged for 60 days. Slow pasteurisation methods means production is a lengthy process. This comes at a price though as turnover is slower. If you’re producing handmade cheese, you’ll be lavishing care and attention not found in mass production. Smaller batches means higher labour costs. With no production during winter the farmer still has to make a profit to survive. Some artisan farmers are affected by the seasons, especially if their cows are only grazing on pastures in summer months. In contrast, smaller businesses don’t always have enough cash reserves to survive market fluctuations. Large dairy farms usually have greater reserves of cash needed in times of downturn and to cover debt. Mass produced cheese is less expensive as methods used in production are much faster. However, for that extra special meal, nothing beats the luxury of artisanal cheese. Once you’ve tried artisan cheese you’ll never make toast or lasagne using cheese slices again! I have nothing against them as they’re a great standby if you’re in a hurry and have hungry mouths to feed. ![]() The flavour and texture is far more intense than any supermarket plastic wrapped cheese. Other mass-produced cheeses pale in significance compared to a lovingly made quality cheese. Once you’ve tasted handcrafted artisan cheese though, you’ll be spoilt! If you want to know why artisan cheese is more expensive than other kinds of cheese, it’s because quality handcrafted cheeses take longer to produce.
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