Best cheese subscription for gifting
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What’s the best place to buy cheese online?
As an artisanal cheese die-hard, I must first state categorically that the best place to buy cheese, online or otherwise, is from your local creameries or independent cheese retailers. These sources often provide high-quality options crafted with care and passion. That being said, sometimes cheese needs arise that demand more: A more adventurous selection, national shipping, giftability, recognizable brands or the opportunity to subscribe to a program that brings cheese into your life on a monthly basis.
Read more: Store Cheese Properly and You’ll Extend Its Life by Days, Even Weeks
Many creameries of varied sizes allow you to buy their products online, but for the furthest reach and biggest value, here are eight of the best places to buy cheese online, for gifts, entertaining or even just stocking your cheese drawer.
Best places to buy cheese online
Goldbelly is a broader food delivery service than just cheese, where iconic foods from restaurants and markets around the country can be shipped to your door. Several of America’s most important cheese producers also ship via Goldbelly, including Cowgirl Creamery, Rogue Creamery and Cypress Grove, in addition to several smaller, artisanal producers.
Many cheese-adjacent options or byproducts are also available, such as cheesecakes, cheese balls, pimento cheese and even queso fundido. You can’t mix and match between producers here, but you have several choices per producer in terms of how much and what types of cheese you want and whether cheese pairing accompaniments are included. A bonus for gifting and receiving both: Goldbelly lets you choose your delivery date. Plus, if you sign up for emails, you get $20 off your first order.
(I’m happy to report that Goldbelly, as well as every other purveyor on this list, is employing eco-conscious packaging, where every element is either recyclable or biodegradable. There’s not a styrofoam cooler in sight. Go cheese!)
New York-based Murray’s Cheese, now owned by Kroger, is one of America’s largest cheese retailers. In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a wine and cheese instructor at Murray’s in Manhattan, but this also means I know firsthand how wide its selection is and how carefully it treats its cheeses.
Hit up Murray’s if you’re looking for a particular cheese but aren’t sure you can find it locally. It’s great for just cheese browsing and shopping, if you want to grab some wedges for your fridge from the world’s best producers, available in half-pound increments. It’s also a good place to source full wheels for a cheese wedding cake. Murray’s also offers gift boxes and subscriptions that range from mild to wild. You can enjoy 15% off your first order by signing up for email and text alerts as well.
Boarderie is doing something nobody else is doing; delivering precut, prearranged cheese and charcuterie boards on a national shipping scale. (It also caught Oprah’s attention, for what that’s worth.) Boards are brilliantly packaged, using mini bamboo compartments that keep various components from adulterating each other. The only setup required to serve is to unwrap. Cheeses and charcuterie are on the elevated side of conventional but are appropriate for just about any palate.
Boarderie’s boards also include a cool variety of accompaniments, including unique offerings such as Thai crystalized ginger and prosecco cordials, sparing you from having to buy large quantities of these bites just to place a handful on the plate.
Your order includes a handy guide card to delineate every element, and boards are customizable for various occasions. Shipping is expedited and included in the price, and the service allows you to choose a specific delivery date.
A relative newcomer in the online cheese scene, AppyHour is a subscription service that ships monthly boxes based on a geographical or conceptual theme. Boxes include two cheeses plus charcuterie and accompaniments. (A currently available promotion also offers “free brie for a year,” meaning that your box will also include a creamy brie portion.)
Distinctive from Curdbox above, artisanal cheeses were a little more on the approachable side, but shipments will always include charcuterie as well as cheese. I also appreciated that all the components, including accompaniments, were portioned for a single cheese board and are thoughtfully wrapped with Formaticum products.
AppyHour included my single favorite accoutrement from any package I received: Effie’s Homemade Oatcakes. These are amazing for cheese and also nicely fit the Irish theme of my box. The service also sends you the menu for each box ahead of time, so you can opt in or out month by month.
There’s really nothing you can’t get through Amazon, and cheese is no exception. Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh are both accessed through the Amazon interface and offer different options to serve different needs.
Whole Foods Market has a cheese legend at the helm of its cheese program and offers a deep selection of artisanal cheeses, including local selections, such as you’d find in-store.
Amazon Fresh has its own Amazon Aplenty brand for conventional, family-friendly blocks and other shreds and wedges to fill your cheese drawer. Last-minute entertaining? Either program offers same-day delivery with a 2-hour delivery window, and you receive your cheeses without any packaging materials to recycle.
Harry & David is one of the most trusted names in gourmet food delivery, making it an ideal choice for cheese gifting, especially for those who like cheese but don’t venture much beyond gouda and cheddar. An exception is the company’s Award-Winning Cheeses sampler, which goes a bit into deeper cheese territory for more adventurous palates.
Harry & David offers charcuterie and cheese gift baskets, including a plethora of accompaniments, at prices that put them on the value side of this list. An option to “add something extra” to any of your gift baskets adds the company’s signature Moose Munch to your cheese order, which you’ll want to do. (Pair it with blue cheese. Trust me on this.) You can also order Boarderie gifts through Harry & David.
Curdbox is a straightforward subscription service that sends three cheeses plus three cheese accompaniments to you monthly. Its cheeses and accompaniments are on the approachable side of adventurous, but I’d expect to have to keep an open mind and palate month-by-month, making this ideal for cheese explorers looking for unique finds.
My box was a symphony of big flavor: a bold mixed-milk cheddar, a quadrupel beer cheese and a lesser-known, meaty Alpine-style cheese called Hoch Ybrig.
To back these robust cheeses up, black pepper pretzels, crunchy mushroom chips and bacon jalapeño mustard were also included. Along with the goods, Curdbox also sends pairing info and a link to a Spotify playlist, blog post and podcast to get you in a cheesy mood. The cost is $75 a month including shipping for a box of three cheeses plus accoutrements. Discounts are available if you pay upfront for multiple months.
Tagged as the “online shop for food lovers,” Michigan-based Zingerman’s is an all-in-one shop when it comes to cheese and the food that goes with cheese. There’s even a tab in its drop-down shopping menu called “cheese companions.” And, to be clear, just about everything Zingerman’s offers — from deli meat to bread to pastry to vinegar and oil — easily qualifies as a cheese companion.
On the cheese front, you can score wedges of mostly American and Italian artisanal cheeses, as well as Zingerman’s creamery selections. You can also sign up for a quarterly cheese club delivery or customize a cheese gift box, which may also include one of Zingerman’s legendary bread loaves.
The quarterly cheese club costs $325 and there are customizable gift boxes between $95 and $195.
For more delicious eats online, see our list of the best meal delivery services and the best places to order premium cuts of meat.
