As the winter holidays approach, it is never too early to start thinking about gift ideas for your friends, family, and loved ones. There is a Formaticum product for every cheese lover in your life, so we've put together a Holiday Gift Guide to help you determine which products can help you check things off your to-do list during the busiest time of the year!

Why should you gift Formaticum cheese storage products? Simply put, our products are the best on the market for preserving your cheese. Our products have 1 main job, and they do it well. Unlike plastic wrap, which suffocates your cheese by trapping moisture and allowing excess mold growth, Formaticum cheese paper allows your cheese to breathe while maintaining the right humidity levels to prevent your cheese from drying out. 

The biggest advantage of using Formaticum cheese paper is that it can significantly extend the shelf life of your cheese, ensuring that you consume the highest quality product possible. Cheese is a living product, and plastic wrap can leach harmful chemicals into the cheese over time, as well as affect the flavor. Formaticum cheese paper does not contain any harmful chemicals and will not affect the flavor of your cheese.

If you are looking for another way to honor the work of farmers, cheesemakers, affineurs, and everyone in between, consider gifting a Formaticum cheese storage product. 

FOR THE HOST: We all have a friend or family member who loves hosting dinner parties, cocktail hours, girls' nights, book clubs, or just making a cheese and charcuterie board for dinner. Our Cheese Board Liners and Mini Cheese Knives will elevate their presentations to a new level, especially during holiday party season! 

FOR THE STUDENT: If you know someone who loves learning about cheese, the Cheese Log Book is an ideal gift. They can keep track of all the cheeses they try, write down their personal tasting notes, and even learn more about how to taste, serve, and store cheese with the educational pages in this pocket-sized reference book. Pair with a package of Cheese Storage Bags or Paper, because it's likely this person has a fridge full of different cheeses! 

FOR THE PROFESSIONAL: If you have a cheesemonger, chef, or other food professional on your list, they will love our Professional Cheese Knives. The Professional 4-Knife Set is the perfect addition to any foodie kitchen, ensuring that every cut of any style of cheese is as efficient as possible, as well as incredibly stylish - these knives are made in Italy from stainless steel with real walnut wooden handles. 

FOR THE ECO-FRIENDLY: We are proud of the fact that there is a Formaticum product for every lifestyle. Our Zero Cheese Storage Bags & Sheets are completely plastic-free and compostable, while our new Reusable Cheese Storage Bags & Sheets can be hand-washed, air-dried, and reused over and over again for all styles of cheese. Reduce waste without compromising your cheese! 

Of course, any gift containing Formaticum products can be improved with a gift card to the recipient's favorite local cheese shop or specialty grocery store. A thoughtful gift is also a delicious way to support your local small businesses! Browse all Formaticum products on our website, and please don't hesitate to reach out to us at hello@formaticum.com with any questions, comments, or concerns. We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season, and we are thankful for your continued support!

The end of the summer marks an important tradition for Swiss cheesemakers - the Désalpe. After a long summer high up in the Alps, the farmers lead their herds of cows down the mountain and parade them through the town, adorned with flower crowns and ornate cowbells as the town cheers to thank them for their hard work. Attendees of the Désalpe celebrate the end of the summer cheesemaking season with fondue, drinks, and heaping plates of food, as the sounds of traditional Swiss alphorn music mingle with the clanging of the cowbells. 

The celebration comes at the end of the alpage cheesemaking season - during the summer months, farmers and cheesemakers make their way up into the mountains with their cows to spend the season in chalets, Alpine huts that often have no electricity. Some farmers even combine their herds in order to pool milk for a single cheesemaker to work with - this is called coop dairying, a tradition that is very common for cheeses like Gruyère and Comté. While the cows graze on the lush mountain pasture, the town below can focus on utilizing their pastures to harvest and store hay for the herds to eat during the harsh winter months. The seasonal migration of the animals from lower to higher elevations across seasons is known as transhumance, and it is not exclusive to Swiss cheesemaking - many cheeses like Gorgonzola from Italy and authentic Cotija from Mexico involve transhumance too! 

The abundance of diverse flora, grasses, and herbs present in high elevation Alpine pastures are a significant part of what gives alpage cheese its unique and complex flavor - as the cows digest them, their flavors create a terroir in the milk is distinctly Swiss, which only intensifies as the cheese ages. The milk is collected daily, sometimes more than once, where it is made into cheese in a copper vat over a wood-burning fire, imbuing the wheels with a hint of wood smoke.

Over hundreds of years, alpage cheesemakers have come up with ways to achieve the ideal firm texture and savory, nutty flavor of their cheeses as a result of immediate environmental factors - from cutting the curds smaller and heating them at a higher temperature to create a drier cheese, to a sparing use of salt to avoid lugging heavy bags up a mountain, to a standardized larger format wheel that is easier to bring back down the mountain than several smaller wheels. Creating larger, sturdier wheels of cheese ensures the cheese will stay good longer so that the people in the community can consume the nutrients found in liquid milk to help sustain them through the winter months. 

Alpage cheesemaking is no small feat - it requires nearly round-the-clock commitment and backbreaking labor. Those who continue this ancient cheesemaking tradition are lauded and highly respected in Switzerland. So this season, we raise a glass and a pot of fondue to alpage cheesemakers everywhere to thank them for keeping the tradition alive, so that we can continue to enjoy our Gruyère, our Vacherin Fribourgeois, our Sbrinz, our L'Etivaz, and much more. 

Of course, it's important to store these cheeses properly so that you can experience the seasonality and flavor at its best and fullest - Formaticum cheese storage solutions are perfect for protecting your investment and honoring the work of these dedicated cheesemakers and farmers. We recommend our Reusable Cheese Storage Sheets for the best possible results, or our Reusable Cheese Storage Bags for all the benefits of the Reusable material, combined with the ease of the bag format. 

Shop now at formaticum.com and don't forget to enjoy some fondue with friends this holiday season! 

In preparation for Raw Milk Cheese Appreciation Day coming up on October 19th, we wanted to delve a little deeper into the world of raw milk cheese to help you better understand it and hopefully inspire you to purchase a piece to celebrate the holiday!

If you have ever enjoyed a piece of authentic Swiss Gruyère in a sandwich, grated Parmigiano Reggiano over pasta, or Roquefort in a salad, you have eaten raw milk cheese. And while the concept of raw milk cheese might be unfamiliar to many right now, it is the way that cheese has been made for centuries, since cheesemaking predates the invention of pasteurization in the 1860s. But what exactly does the term mean, and why are dedicating an entire day to celebrating it? 

"Raw" milk is milk that has not been pasteurized prior to being made into cheese - Eating raw milk cheese is not at all the same as drinking raw milk. Raw milk contains naturally-occurring microflora that is usually harmless if the milk is handled correctly and responsibly in a sanitary environment and made into cheese almost immediately. Pasteurization kills any existing potentially harmful pathogens within the milk, but it also kills any completely harmless, flavor-producing microorganisms. Bacteria is not always a dirty word, and in the case of raw milk cheese, the bacteria present are actual integral to the development of the cheese's individual flavor. The beneficial bacteria present in raw milk cheese also represent a natural defense against any "bad" bacteria, whereas a pasteurized milk cheese stripped of its natural defenses could present a friendlier environment for pathogens to grow. However, there is little to worry about as long as you are purchasing responsibly-made cheese from a reputable source with strict sanitation standards! 

The microorganisms in raw milk are inherently connected to the concept of terroir, or how every aspect of an animal's environment affects the flavor of the cheese. The animal breed, the feed it eats, the water it drinks, all impacts the composition of the milk, which affects the flavor of the cheese. It's part of the reason why many classic European raw milk cheeses have PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status - the terroir of these cheeses is the base of their identities, and if they were made anywhere else under different conditions, the cheese simply would not taste the same.

In fact, many of your favorite cheeses that have become household names, must legally be made with raw milk in their authentic forms - think Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Gruyère, Comté, Brie de Meaux, Camembert de Normandie…have you ever noticed that the aged cheeses listed can probably be found in any cheese shop or specialty grocery store, but you've probably never seen a veritable Brie de Meaux or Camembert de Normandie on your store shelves? That's because the FDA here in the US has decided, to the dismay of the American cheese community, that all raw milk cheese produced in or imported into the US must be at least 60 days of age for food safety reasons. And while the author of this blog post is neither a doctor nor a scientist, it should be noted that the rest of the cheesemaking and cheese-consuming world does not look kindly upon this unique ruling. 

But we should not only celebrate European raw milk cheeses - there are plenty of high-quality cheeses being made all over the world that deserve to be celebrated with just as much enthusiasm! For example, authentic Cotija from Mexico is traditionally a raw milk mountain cheese, instead of the vaguely milky stark white vacuum-sealed blocks so commonly found in the dairy section of the grocery store. Even the United States has a flourishing raw milk cheese culture (pun intended) - our country is home to rockstar cheesemakers like Uplands Cheese, Parish Hill Creamery, Shelburne Farms, Cato Corner Farm, Jasper Hill Farm, Meadow Creek Dairy, and many more who are churning out some of the finest raw milk cheese on the market that can go toe to toe with any European classics. 

Raw milk cheeses contain centuries of cheesemaking history in every bite, with complex and nuanced flavor that simply cannot be replicated by any machine in any lab. If you have made the effort to seek out high-quality cheese at peak flavor, you certainly want to make sure that you preserve that flavor to the best of your ability! Formaticum cheese storage products are the best way to ensure that you taste every bite as the cheesemaker intended - our products allow you to protect your investment and simultaneously honor the work of every animal and person that helped create that cheese and get it to your plate.

And just as there is a cheese for every palate, there is a Formaticum product for every lifestyle:

Classic Cheese Storage Bags are perfect for cheese lovers of all experience levels, and make it easy to store any cheese in your fridge - simply place the cheese in the bag, fold the top over, and enjoy a piece whenever you want!

Reusable Cheese Storage Bags are our newest addition to the collection and are an ideal solution for anyone looking to reduce kitchen waste - they can be hand-washed, air-dried, and reused indefinitely for all styles of cheese.

Zero Cheese Storage Sheets are an eco-friendly option that can be composted right in your backyard!  

Browse our full collection of cheese storage solutions on our site, and contact us with any questions or comments at hello@formaticum.com.

Vive le fromage!

Charles de Gaulle once famously asked, "How can you govern a country with 246 varieties of cheese?" and while the actual number of cheese varieties in France and worldwide is much, much higher, it really makes you think - with all those different cheeses comes an equal amount of cheese rinds. But which ones are edible, and more importantly, which ones are delicious? We can't help you with deciding the latter, since everyone's tastes are different, but we can certainly provide you with a handy guide to cheese rind types and how to approach them.

First, a bit of cheese anatomy: the "rind" is the outer, usually harder, part of the cheese, and the "paste" is the inner, softer part of the cheese that is surrounded by the rind. 

As a general rule, all cheese rinds are edible unless they are made of an inedible material, as on a Clothbound Cheddar or a waxed Gouda. But how can you tell rinds and cheese styles apart? Use the tips below to learn how to identify cheese types and also how to store them properly, since cheese is a living product! 

Bloomy Rind: Perhaps the most universally recognized rind, this fluffy white outer layer is formed by the culture p. candidum or camemberti, and can sometimes include a speckling of grey, blue, or even green molds that should not be feared - they indicate that the cheese is alive and healthy! This category of cheese includes favorites like Brie, Camembert, triples creams, and even some Robiolas. 

Geotrichum Rind: Bearing a striking, almost brain-like appearance, this type of rind is created through the growth of the culture geotrichum candidum. Most commonly found on small-format aged goat cheeses like Chabichou, Mothais Sur Feuille, and Langres, these iconic wrinkles usually denote a tangy, bright, sometimes yeasty flavor. 

Both of these rind types are completely edible and in fact are painstakingly developed by affineurs (cheese aging professionals) to enhance the character of the cheese and complete the flavor experience. 

Because these rinds require a bit of extra oxygen to thrive, the best wrapping material for Bloomy & Geotrichum-rinded cheese is our Clear Storage Sheets. 

Washed Rind: You might smell this rind before you see it - the culture b.linens is responsible for creating a tacky, orange rind with funky, sometimes beefy scent. Think Epoisses, Taleggio, and Raclette. This rind is completely edible and will intensify as the cheese ripens! Store washed rinds in our plastic-free Zero Cheese Storage Sheets for best results. 

Natural Rind: These are the cheeses that look craggy and mottled - as the name suggests, these rinds are aged naturally using ambient microflora in an aging cave. Examples of this particular kind of natural rinded cheese include some tommes like Ossau Iraty or Garrotxa, both rinds that are technically edible but may taste a bit too intensely earthy or "cavey" for some cheese lovers. Some natural rinded cheeses like Gruyère and Comté are also gently washed in brine while they are aged in an environment that encourages the growth of naturally occurring molds to help form the rind. These rinds can certainly be eaten and enjoyed, but may have a stronger earthy or mushroomy flavor. 

Other notable natural rinds include real Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano (it's not wax!) and Mimolette, which is famously ripened with the help of the completely harmless and incredible important cheese mite. While these rinds are generally too hard to be eaten on their own, Parmigiano rinds can be added to soups, sauces, and stocks to enhance the flavor. 

Use our Classic Cheese Storage Bags to keep natural rinded cheeses fresh in your fridge, as they can generally hold their shape better than softer cheeses and will thrive in the cave-like environment created by our Cheese Storage Bags. 

Blue Cheese: Generally, you will encounter two types of rinds on blue cheeses: natural, such as with Stilton or Bayley Hazen Blue, or foil-wrapped, for example, Roquefort or Point Reyes Original Blue. Both rinds are natural and edible (obviously not the foil itself but the rind beneath), but it is not necessary to consume them to experience the full flavor of the cheese. Some blue cheeses are wrapped in leaves, like Rogue River Blue or Shakerag Blue, and the leaves on cut pieces, like foil, should be left on for as long as possible, as they offer a level of protection for the rind. 

Try wrapping blue cheeses in Reusable Cheese Storage Sheets, a sturdy cheese storage solution that will preserve your cheese and prevent leakage. 

Got a question on your rind? Reach out to us any time at hello@formaticum.com!