In the U.S. these days, cheese is emerging as a product and point of pride that in some circles. That was clear at the United States Championship Cheese Contest held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, last week. A crowd of approximately 500 people packed into a ballroom to see a U.S. Cheese Championship winner named, and a steady stream of even more people had spent two previous days watching judges sniff, taste, spit and rate 2,555 different cheeses from across the nation.
US Cheesemakers Growing, Changing With the Times
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Judges say Swiss cheeses are difficult to get right, in part because the holes – called the “eyes” – have to be perfectly formed on the inside, seen at the U.S. Cheese Championship in Green Bay, Wis., March 5, 2019.
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A team of judges tallies the scoring for a wheel of cheese at the U.S. Cheese Championship, held in Green Bay, Wis., March 5, 2019. All cheeses start with 100 points and are docked fractions of points for flaws.
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Judges smell a sample of one of the 2,555 cheeses entered in the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, in Green Bay, Wis., March 5, 2019. Smell is just one criterion in the technical competition of the contest that began in 1981.
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Guests at the U.S. Cheese Championship gala could help themselves to samples from a giant wheel of Swiss cheese that had been among the cheeses judged in the competition, in Green Bay, Wis., March 7, 2019.