Imagine, this has been going on thirty-eight years without me. I was clueless. In a two day event and for the first time in Berne Switzerland, the 37th World Cheese Awards 2025 was decided. More than 250 judges picked the best of the best from 5,244 cheeses that had travelled from 46 countries to compete. This year’s award goes to… drum roll, please… no, wait. Let me tell you about the competition first, to whet your appetite so to speak.
World Cheese Awards 2025
From what I can tell the competition was similar to a grand slam tennis event. Starting from a large field the winning players, ah, I mean cheeses, compete against the other winning cheeses until you have the final two cheeses competing against each other to win the grand prize.
Unlike tennis, one cheese can’t compete on its own against another cheese, judges are needed to say which cheeses were of a winning quality. So I guess my tennis analogy pretty much ends here. In this competition, first, groups of judges chose the best cheeses from their designated tables. They grade them by appearance, aroma, flavor and the feel of it in the mouth and awarded them a maximum of 35 points. Then the judging groups keep narrowing down the cheeses using describers like bronze, silver, gold and super gold to express their qualities. Then they compared the winners from one table with the winners of another table and so on until the two best cheeses were competing against each other.
The judges take their job seriously, as they should. Each know exactly what they are looking for in a perfect cheese while blind-testing them. Some look to be taken on a journey when eating a cheese, others look for integrity. And still others look for a song, along with a full orchestra that just keeps on singing. Truly interesting ways to describe cheese if you ask me. It seems one judge characterized a cheese as ‘beautiful, fruity and pleasant’. Then added ‘it’s got a bit of a bite and texture. It tastes like strawberry laces.’ Which I assume means the cheese is harder than soft with some bumps in it and tastes like strawberry laces, whatever lace tastes like. I suppose if I were to describe a cheese I would probably say something to the effect of ‘Hmm, this is pretty good’. Okay, not quite the eloquence of a real judge. Maybe it’s good that I don’t work as a cheese judge.
… And The Winner Is…
The grand final was fought out between two European cheeses, a Gruyère cheese from Switzerland and French cheese with flowers called Crémeux des Aldudes aux Fleurs by Etxaldia. Needless to say the winning cheese was the Swiss Gruyère. This competition only deals in whole points and the Gruyère only won by one point!. Places 3,4 and 5 all went to Switzerland,too. The winning cheese was described as a ‘big piece of cheese” with a “dark orange rind and umami brothy notes”. He added that “The aroma has a real beefiness to it. It’s savoury, it’s deep, it’s umami…” In case you don’t know (I certainly didn’t), umami is one of 5 basic tastes, it’s characteristic of broths and cooked meat. It’s what is called a loanword from Japanese and can be translated as “ pleasant savory taste”. Nothing like basically repeating what you said to really drive home the message: this cheese is savoury, savoury!
Of course that Switzerland won shouldn’t really come as any big surprise. Swiss cheese tend to do that. This year in a competition that’s held every two years in the USA, The World Championship Cheese Contest, out of 100 points, a mere .23 of a point stopped a Swiss Appenzeller cheese from being world champion. There were 7 other entries from Switzerland that were in the top 20. Face it, Swiss make good cheese.
The Whole World Loves Cheese
With the exception of one person I know, who actually orders pizza without cheese, everyone I know loves cheese. Me included and especially Americans in general. But sometimes people can take the love of cheese too far.
On the Internet a couple of years ago I was watching some YouTube videos by an American, trying to get quick meal ideas. Every single recipe had handfuls of cheese in them. Of course either mozzarella or cheddar (the orange kind) are always the American favorite. Whether it was mixed with pasta or chicken after it was finished all the videos inevitably showed someone scooping out the hot food with globs and globs of dripping cheese sliding back into the dish. The last one I watched I thought was going to be different. After cutting and pounding some chicken breasts she added some sauce and a slight sprinkle of cheese before rolling them. Ah, at last, a little more discretion. But then, after she put them into a frying pan, she proceeded to absolutely smother them with shredded cheese before cooking them for 35 minutes. That was just too much for me.
Sorry, I really do like cheese but it should be a bit more refined and not quite so blatant. Unless, of course your meal is melted cheese, like fondue or raclette. Oops, I think my Swiss is showing.
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