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Want to see your loved ones’ eyes light up when they open presents this holiday? Give the gift of cheese! Sharing cheese with your favorite people is one of the most delicious ways to show how much you care, whether you’re serving a holiday cheese board feast at a family celebration or sending a digital gift card to a faraway friend.
Cheese Grotto’s online shop is your source for holiday cheese gifts this year. We’ve got everything from gorgeous handcrafted cheese boards to cheese and charcuterie gift boxes to private, experiential virtual cheese tastings and cheesemaking classes to bring your favorite people together even when you’re apart. Here are the best cheese gifts for the holidays in 2021.
Cheese Knife Gift Sets
Every cheese lover needs a dedicated set of knives for cheese. Unsure which ones to choose? Check out our guide to cheese knives for inspiration and info on which knives are best to use with different styles of cheese.
Our versatile, sustainable cheese knives work great for everything from soft, spreadable varieties like chevre to hard, crystalline wedges like aged Gouda or Parmesan. Our Hand-Carved Wooden Cheese Knives add a warm look to any board while offering a comfortable shape that makes portioning and cutting a breeze.
New for 2021, we’ve debuted our Sustainable Paperstone Black Resin Cheese Knives, which combine the ergonomic shape and versatility of our original knives with a matte black finish that you can write on with included soapstone chalk. That way, each cheese gets a designated knife, which helps avoid cross contamination (and looks beautiful, too). It’s even dishwasher safe!
Cheese Board Gifts
Of course, your intended recipient should have a beautiful cheese board to go with those cool new knives—and we have several beautiful, long-lasting options that will make their cheese and charcuterie platters shine.
For the entertainer in your life, consider our Adagio Cheese Server, carved from bamboo and coated with a durable, food-safe, and dramatic black resin coating. This beauty holds up to 10 pounds of cheese—enough to feed a crowd of 20—and features handles for easy transport to your table. Prefer a more natural look? Our Bamboo Adagio Cheese Server is available on a pre-order basis.
For smaller households, check out our Circular Serving Slate. Serve up to six people on this sleek round of natural New York stone—nothing makes beautiful cheeses pop like deep, dark slate! Get it on its own or as a set with one of our bamboo cheese knives and a piece of soapstone chalk to label each cheese. Or pick up our Sustainable Black Cheese Board and Knife Gift Set, which comes with chalk and doubles as a shelf for the Cheese Grotto Classico.
Cheese Gift Boxes
Maybe your cheese-loving recipient already has some basic cheese gear, and you’d prefer to give a gift that’s more experiential (and won’t add clutter). Send them a box of amazing cheeses instead!
In our online cheese shop, you can search makers by cheese type, state, or milk type to find the perfect bundle of wedges, then ship them anywhere in the U.S. Cow, goat sheep, it’s all there!
Whether they love luscious bloomies, funky washed rinds, pungent blues, or savory hard cheeses, you’ll find a package that includes their favorites. Plus, we just added a ton of new cheesemakers to our online store, including amazing artisan producers from Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, New York, and Iowa.
Want to provide a more comprehensive experience? Give them a cheese tasting in a box with one of our Full Artisan Cheese Tasting Gift Package, featuring three luscious cheeses along with a ton of delicious accompaniments to pair with them. Cheese gift baskets and boxes like this one never go out of style—they include all the ingredients you need for a delicious cheese board in one beautiful package!
We also offer smaller packages highlighting a single accompaniment. Go with classic cheese and crackers, or add in American-made heritage country ham (the perfect gift for charcuterie lovers), artisan chocolate, Spanish olives, real black truffle honey, or sweet-savory chutney.
Cheese Gift Subscriptions
Send someone a single cheese gift box, and they’ll enjoy it once. But if you give them a cheese subscription, they’ll be able to enjoy great cheese—and think about how much they appreciate you, the giver—for months to come!
Our cheese subscription gift boxes are great for anyone who wants to expand the roster of cheeses they tried. Our Monthly Artisan Cheese Subscription Box features a single fantastic American artisan cheese each month. You can sign the recipient up for 3, 6, or 12 months of cheese, so there are options for any budget.
For larger households or those who love entertaining, check out our Quarterly Artisan Cheese Subscription Box, which features a selection of different cheeses totaling two pounds, delivered every three months for a year. A whole year of delicious seasonal cheese selections—who wouldn’t love that?
But we’re most excited about our newest cheese subscription program: Our Monthly Artisan Cheese and Pairings Subscription Box! We’re combining one of our favorite cheeses each month with a carefully curated accoutrement—think pickles, jams, chocolate, charcuterie, olives, honey—crafted in small batches by mostly U.S. makers.
One of the joys of cheese is pairing it with other delicious foods to see how the flavors change and evolve when combined, and this subscription lets you do just that! Plus, each box comes with gourmet crackers, so you get a complete cheese pairing (or easy work-from-home lunch or happy hour snack) each month.
Our cheese subscription programs aren’t just delicious—they’re educational, too! Each of our subscription box programs includes information about the cheeses, the makers, and the best ways to store and enjoy them, including wine and beer pairings and sweet and savory food pairing ideas.
Cheese Storage Gifts
Let’s say your intended recipient is really into cheese—or wants to get really into cheese. You want to go beyond the boards and boxes to get them something exciting and different. But what?
The Cheese Grotto—a cheese storage container unlike any other—will take their cheese habit to the next level. It’s our flagship product, and it’s changed how countless cheese lovers store, enjoy, and even make cheese at home. Each of the four Grotto models includes washable bamboo shelving and a clay brick to keep the humidity perfect for your favorite wedges.
For serious connoisseurs (or folks with large households), check out the Cheese Grotto Classico—the original! It holds up to eight pounds of cheese, with cutout windows for viewing your beautiful wedges. For smaller households that love cheese, look into the Fresco, which holds up to four pounds. For very small households—or budding cheese aficionados—look to the Mezzo, a single-shelf model that still holds two tasty pounds of cheese.
Those with tiny kitchens, frequent travelers, and folks just starting out on their cheese journey will love the Piatto, our most compact model. Despite taking up just a six-inch square in the fridge or on the counter, it can hold a full pound of cheese (two to three pieces). And best of all, it fits together with magnets and packs flat in its own special storage box, making it easy to stash when not in use (or when you’re traveling to a new cheese destination).
Home Cheesemaking Kits
If you’re shopping for someone who loves to cook and DIY in the kitchen—or a fan of fresh mozzarella—look no further than our Italian Home Cheesemaking Kit!
Our friends at Farmsteady have included all the special equipment and ingredients you need to make your own fresh mozzarella, burrata, ricotta, and mascarpone cheese at home. All they’ll have to do is add milk and heavy cream. We’ll even send along recipes with ideas for how to use that mozzarella and ricotta once they’ve made it.
Virtual Cheese Tastings and Cheesemaking Classes
Looking for a gourmet cheese gift that’s experiential as well as delicious? Check out our virtual cheese events! We hold public virtual cheese tastings, cheese board classes, and Sip & Stretch fresh mozzarella classes every month. Tickets make a fun and delicious gift—and your recipient will learn a new skill they can use over and over!
If you’re hoping to get the whole family together from afar for the holidays, reward your team at work for a job well done, or have fun with far-flung friends this holiday, consider booking one of our private virtual wine and cheese tastings or private home cheesemaking classes. We’ll ship out everything your guests need to participate, and one of our resident cheese experts will lead your group in a fun and educational Zoom session all about cheese!
Cheese Gift Cards
If you just can’t decide on the perfect holiday cheese gift—or if you’re shopping for someone with very specific tastes—we still have the perfect gift for you!
A Cheese Grotto digital gift card can be used on anything in our online store, including cheese packages, cheese subscription boxes, virtual event tickets, Cheese Grottos, cheese boards, and cheese knives. With one of our gift cards, your loved one gets the freedom to choose exactly what they want, and you get the satisfaction of supporting a small, women-owned cheese business and American artisan cheesemakers. Everybody wins!
What cheesy holiday gifts are you giving loved ones this year? Tag us @cheesegrotto on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and let us know!
