News

U.S. Cheese Championships promote dairy sales and improvements

Cheesemakers have different reasons for entering the U.S. Cheese Championship competition. 

Past champion for string cheese Cesar Luis with Cesar’s Cheese in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin uses the contest as a tool to keep improving his product. He tells Brownfield, “We always wanted to keep the quality as high as possible, so for us, it’s every day. It’s how we make it. Hand-stretch is hard work, but I think it pays off.”

Past champion Gouda maker Marieke Penterman from Thorp, Wisconsin says the exposure her products got from the World Championship competition a year ago dramatically increased sales. “And within 48 hours, we got so much online orders that it actually exceeded our 2018 total online orders.”

The U.S. Championship Cheese Contest had a record 2,555 entries this year.  Rebekah Sweeney with the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association tells Brownfield the contest also helps farmers. “We can’t make cheese without milk, and we can’t make great cheese without great milk, so the folks you see that are successful in our contest have great relationships with their farmers.”

A Baby Swiss Wheel made by Team Guggisberg Doughty Valley in Millersburg, Ohio was named the best cheese in the United States, earning the company its second overall champion title.  Penterman claimed both the first and second runner-up positions.  Her Gouda Premium was just one-tenth of a point behind the Champion and Marieke Gouda Overjarige was two-one hundredths of a point behind the Gouda.

A team of 60 nationally-renowned judges hailing from 20 states considered the flavor, body and texture, salt, color, finish, and appearance of 2,555 entries, scoring them on a 100-point scale.

Overall, Wisconsin cheesemakers dominated the 2019 competition, earning gold medals in 60 of the 116 contest classes and sweeping the gold, silver, and bronze medals in 25 classes.  New York cheesemakers earned nine gold medals, while those in California and Idaho earned six each.  Gold medals went to dairy processors in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington.

The U.S. Championship Cheese Contest is the largest technical cheese, butter, yogurt, and dry dairy products competition in the country, and has been held biennially since 1981. 

Many of the champion cheeses will be auctioned off later to fund cheesemaker education.

Listen to Brownfield’s interviews with Luis, Penterman, and Sweeney here: