What Does Seasonal Cheeses Mean?

Cheese is a seasonal product just like fruit and vegetables with its taste, texture and quality varying as the seasons change. The taste and texture of cheese vary according to the milk-producing animal's diet and the grasses and herbs that they graze.

Mass-produced cheese with a consistent taste and texture is available all year round, and many people have forgotten this seasonal link between their favourite food and the changing seasons.

Read on to discover more about how cheese produced at different times of year varies in texture and taste.

Differences between milk produced in different seasons

As the animal's diet changes so does its milk and the taste and texture of the resulting cheese.

Spring and summer milk

The newly grown grass comes through in the spring and lasts during the summer months and into the early autumn. Cow's milk is plentiful, and the resulting cheese is fresh and lively in flavour with a high vitamin content.

The cheese changes in flavour depending on the type of grass eaten too. High concentrations of clover, flowers, and wild herbs can give the milk complex flavours.

Alpine cheeses are famous for the fragrance and delicious flavour that results from the cows grazing in herb-filled summer pastures.

Winter milk

Milk produced during the colder months has a higher fat content than milk produced earlier in the year.

In cold weather when fresh grass is scarce cows are often kept in sheds and given silage or hay instead of fresh grass. This diet reduces the moisture content of the cow's milk and the resulting cheese has a drier consistency than cheese made from spring or summer milk.

Cheeses made from Summer milk

Cheese that doesn't require ageing is often made and enjoyed in the summer.

The lactation cycles of goats and sheep typically stop during the winter so cheese made from their milk is by necessity a summer product.

Rindless fresh cheeses like chevre, cottage cheese, feta and mozzarella have a soft creamy texture and high moisture content and are all classic summer cheeses.

Cheese made with late spring and summer milk is often eaten young and does not undergo an ageing process. Mozzarella and other cream cheese are transformed from milk to cheese within hours and eaten within days.

Brining or marinating certain cheeses can make them last longer and Feta is often treated this way. French soft cheeses like brie sometimes have a soft rind to preserve them for longer.

Other examples of cheese made from summer and spring milk include:

Camembert, Brie de Meaux, Brie de Melun and Roquefort.

Winter milk cheeses

Winter milk has more fat and a lower moisture content than milk from earlier in the year.

Cheese made from winter milk is typically dry and more crumbly.

Vacherin Mont d'Or is exclusively made of milk produced in winter by hay-fed animals. This cheese is only available in December and January.

Aged cheeses

In the cheese world, seasonality does not just apply to when the milk is produced but also relates to the time of year when the cheese is ready to eat.

Stilton and other blue cheeses are made from summer milk but are then aged for at least 6 months to allow the unique flavour to develop and the distinctive blue veins to appear. This ageing period means that Stilton is often ready to eat in December and Stilton has become a classic Christmas cheese.

Cheeses like traditional cheddar are made using the plentiful milk supply that occurs during the late spring and summer months in English pastures. The original Cheddar makers in Somerset perfected a highly effective way of storing their cheese stacked up in local caves. The caves have an ambient temperature that is ideal for drying and ageing the cheese, making it last longer and intensifying its flavour.

Authentic Gruyere is also made exclusively with milk from cows who have grazed the high Alpine pastures in the summer and then aged to perfection over many months.

Artisan cheese or mass-produced cheese

The seasonal variations in the taste and texture of particular cheese are often most obvious in artisan cheese where the cheese is made from a small herd of cows or flocks of goats and sheep, using traditional methods. Milk production usually takes place in the summer when more milk is available.

Large-scale cheese production uses milk from a large number of different herds so the individual characteristic of the grass that the cows have been eating is lost. Mass-produced cheese is made with milk from cows who have been milked year-round without regard to lactation cycles.

Where to find truly seasonal cheese

Artisanal cheese is made using a traditional cheesemaking process by small producers who are pasture-based and making cheese in the summer months when milk is most plentiful.

You can find a range of traditional and artisan cheese on our website.