Top Swiss Cow's Cheeses to Try in 2024
Discover the top Swiss cow's cheeses for 2024, including the award-winning Tea Fondada, with expert insights on tasting and cheese producers.
Peter Hulm·
Some 240 cheese experts from 40 countries say yes. Apologies in advance for clickbaiting you into opening up this web page to find out which cheese it is, says Peter Hulm. That’s his least favourite Web journalism trick. But he has a reason.
The cheese in question is Chascharia Val Müstair’s Grand Cru Tea Fondada (meaning sunken Alpine hut, named for a local legend) originating on the Romansch-speaking Grisons border with Italy’s South Tyrol. The Chascharia’s milk products all carry the label Naturparks Biosfera Val Müstair. Never get all that into a headline.
It received second prize at the 2024 World Cheese Awards at the Central Inland Portuguese city of Viseu in November 2024. Top ranked among the 4,786 cheeses from 47 countries was a “soft and buttery sheep’s milk cheese from Portugal”, Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado, made by a Spanish cheesemaker, Quinto do Pomar in the Serra da Gardunha in the centre of the country” (LINK).
But with 86 points out of 100, it scored only 2 more than Tea Fondada in the competition organized annually since 1988 by the British-based Guild of Fine Food. Post-Brexit, British cheeses did not pass customs and could not compete.
The Val Müstair, along with the Swiss National Park and parts of the municipality of Scuol, is found in the UNESCO biosphere reserve Engiadina Val Müstair. It boasts that 80% of the local farming is totally organic. The Chascharia says all its suppliers are Bio-Suisse certified.
Tea Fondada is aged 6-9 months before being put on sale. It costs CHF27 per kilo, with postage charged at CHF10.
Does it live up to its reputation? I ordered 1kg, and immediately after tasting ordered more to share with my neighbours. It was the best Swiss cheese I have ever tasted: as creamy as Cheddar, as smooth as Gruyère, and with a kick at the end I think is what experts mean by nutty. But I haven’t tried the other Swiss brands on the honours list.
The third place in the list, for example, went to another Swiss cheese, from Fribourg — Mifroma Alpenhorn (Hornkuhkäse) — produced by the Elsa group, part of the major Migros retail chain. Alpenhorn too earned 84 points, and Mifroma products are exported to several countries.
Mifroma describes its Mountain Cheese, made from pasteurized milk, as “sweet and creamy […] ideal for sandwiches“.
The Mifroma cave at Ursy, in the canton of Fribourg, is a former military tunnel, more than 60m underground and over 300m deep.
Among the top scorers were two more Swiss cheeses: Creamy Lion Cheese from Walo von Mühlenen in Thurgau, Eastern Switzerland, placed 8th. It’s described as “ideal as a dessert cheese, for hot and cold cuisine and for savoury raclette.”
Alte Hexe, a “powerful, spicy” Bodensee raw milk cheese you can find in Migros, was 11th at the World Cheese awards. Migros shoppers rate it as “yummy” and “loved by all the family” (LINK).
The cheeses were judged on four criteria – the look, body and texture, aroma, plus flavour and “mouthfeel”.
Why only 84 for Tea Fondada? The announcement didn’t say. But when I tried melting some slices on wholemeal bread it lost its kick.
A rival: Hornbacher Little Brother , the ‘baked potato’ cheese
Tea Fondada has a Swiss rival that can claim the title of 2024 WCCC World Champion Cheese. The title was awarded in March 2024 at the World Championship Cheese Contest (WCCC) in Wisconsin, where 3,300 cheeses from 25 countries were judged. Four-time world champion cheesemaker Michael Spycher and the Fritzenhaus mountain dairy in Kandertal (Bernese Oberland) received the title for his Hornbacher Little Brother, an 8-month-aged cheese launched in 2024 by Gourmino. Micha already has a 12-month-aged Hornbacher. Its Little Brother is said to have the savory taste of a baked potato skin. The cheesemaker has received three previous WCCC awards, all for Gruyère (LINK).
Switzerland’s own cheese awards
Another competition, for the best Swiss cheeses, held every two years, this year had 32 categories and brought together 150 experts and journalists. The three best kinds, chosen by a 37-member jury, received awards this year in Lugano. Le Gruyère AOP from the Lanthen cheese dairy in Canton Fribourg won the title of best Swiss hard cheese. For semi-hard cheese, the prize went to Le Brigand du Jorat from the Saint-Cierges cheese dairy in Canton Vaud. For soft and cream varieties, another Vaudois cheese took the award: Vacherin Mont d’Or AOP from Fromagerie André in Romanel-sur-Morges (LINK).