Colby Cheese

Colby cheese: local cheese makes good.

Here in Wisconsin, we are pretty proud of colby cheese, a homegrown variety dreamed up by a Wisconsin cheesemaker in the 1800s in the little town of Colby. If we had a contest to elect a state cheese, colby might have an inside track – it's one of the fastest growing cheese varieties in the US, and our cheesemakers have won more than 100 awards for their colby cheese varieties.

Lots of folks think of colby as a cheddar because of its yellow color and the way that it's made. But it's a lot softer, milder, and moister than cheddar – is much closer to monterey jack cheese, with which it's often mixed to produce snack cheese and shredded cheese. Here in Wisconsin, we sell more than 40 different types and styles of colby, including garlic & onion, jalapeno, smoke, cranberry, dill and more.Fun fact, Wisconsin was the first state to combine monterey jack and colby to create a national favorite, colby jack!

Any way you slice it, colby cheese is headed for the big time – and Wisconsin will be cheering it on the whole way.

Pairing and serving colby cheese

Colby is often served as table cheese, in slices, or cubes. Kids love its mild flavor. It can stack up high on sandwiches and it makes a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Pair it with crisp, slightly sour apples for an afternoon snack.

For beverages, pilsner, pale ale, or lager match Colby's mild personality. For wines, try a chianti, pinot noir, red zinfandel, champagne, or riesling. And if you're ready for the strong stuff, rye whiskey or tequila reposada are top of the list.

Wisconsin does colby cheese proud

Here in Wisconsin, we've got the colby cheesemaking process down cold. Heck, we invented it. It's part of a long tradition of cheese innovation that has brought us more cheese awards than any other state or country. And when you're up against competition like Italy, France and Switzerland, we think that's saying something.

That might surprise the rest of you, but we know how good our cheese is - Wisconsin makes nearly half of the nation's specialty cheese. Oh, and we have the only Master Cheesemaker program in the world apart from the one in Switzerland.

Some say it's part of our master plan for world cheese domination, but that kind of talk is not really our style. We just think of ourselves as humble folk who work hard to do one thing really well: make the tastiest, highest-quality cheese – like colby – that we know how.