This sampler features four cheeses that are typical of four distinct regions of Italy:

• Provolone Piccante - The piccante (sharp) version of this classic Italian cheese is more complex than the younger dolce version. Provolone is great on sandwiches or chunked into an antipasto salad. (8 oz.)
• Grana Padano Stravecchio - The original hard Italian cheese, Grana Padano is a firm, dry, fruity cow's milk cheese from the Po Valley of Northern Italy. Stravecchio is aged for an optimal 20 months. Grate it over pasta, vegetables or soup, or serve it as a table cheese drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. (8 oz.)
• Mountain Gorgonzola - Italy's famous blue cheese comes from Lombardy. Made from whole cow's milk taken from local herds that graze on beautiful rolling pastures, no Italian Cheese Assortment would be complete without a cut of authentic Gorgonzola. (8 oz.)
• Pecorino Toscano - This soft, 3 month sheep's milk cheese is made in the hills of Tuscany. It is young, sweet and springy. A natural partner with pears! We find that this combination well represents the wide variety of flavors and textures found in Italian cheeses. (8 oz.)

• Please note that any item temporarily out of stock will be substituted with a similar item of equal value.

This item is not packaged as a gift. If you would like the gift packaged version of this item please click here.

Along with their conquering armies, the Romans brought their cheese making expertise to England in the first century AD. But it was not until the sixteenth century when the cheese we know today as cheddar was so named. With such a long history, it's no surprise that cheddar is one of the world's favorite foods. So popular in fact, that almost every cheese-producing nation makes its own version. This assortment contains excellent examples from three continents:

• Denhay Mature English Cheddar: Denhay Cheddar is carefully matured and monitored until it is 11 months old when it is sold as premium West Country Farmhouse Cheddar. (8 oz.)
• Grafton Classic Reserve Cheddar: Grafton Classic Cheddar is an outstanding mature cheddar cheese selected for its pronounced flavor and smooth finish. This two year aged cheese is excellent when accompanied with dried fruits and nuts, crusty breads, and big wines. (8 oz.)
• Great Ocean Road Cheddar: This sharp white cheddar hails from Australia, where it is made from pure milk taken from cows that graze on lush pastures swept by winds from the Southern Ocean. (8 oz.)
• Red Leaf Cheddar: This entrant from North America has a firm texture and a sweet, honeyed flavor. Best enjoyed with ale and fruit, this cheddar is aged for over 12 months. (8 oz.)

Please note that any item temporarily out of stock will be substituted with a similar item of equal value.

You sense it immediately - the heady aromas, the intensely fulfilling textures, and the vibrant flavors of Spain's artisan cheese tradition. Different milks, a diverse terrain, and unique cheese making techniques all play a role in the subtle differences in each cheese's color, texture, and flavor. We have selected four of our favorites for this sampler:

• Manchego - Spain's most famous cheese, made entirely from pure La Mancha sheep's milk. Manchego is prized for its rich, complex flavor and its satisfyingly grainy texture. This pasteurized version is aged for three months. (8 oz.)
• Mahon - This firm cow's milk cheese comes from the Balearic Island of Menorca in the Mediterranean. This version has been aged for three months, developing a rich tanginess and fragrant aroma. (8 oz.)
• Idiazabal - Smooth, rich and satisfyingly sharp, Idiazabal is a smoked sheep's milk cheese that gives off a warming rustic scent. It is the quintessential cheese of the Basque country in Northern Spain. (8 oz.)
• Murcia al Vino - This 100% goat's milk cheese from Murcia is bathed in red Spanish wine, making this product a wine-and-cheese party all by itself! We love how the smooth goat's milk compliments the fruity wine aroma. (8 oz.)

This assortment includes four 1/2 pound cuts of cheese.

• Please note that any item temporarily out of stock will be substituted with a similar item of equal value.

This item is not packaged as a gift. If you would like the gift packaged version of this item please click here.

England is a land well suited to dairy farming. Its territory is relatively flat, thus good for grazing, and it has plenty of rainfall. This country produces over 500 distinct types of cheese, including the four we are featuring in this English Cheese Assortment.

• Denhay Mature Cheddar - Arguably the world's most famous cheese name, Cheddar is an authentic English cheese that has been copied all over the world. If you have never tasted authentic English Farmhouse Cheddar, you are in for a wonderful surprise. Aged at least 11 months. (8 oz.)
• Royal Blue Stilton - How could such an assortment not include England's beloved blue cheese? Creamy, tangy and eminently satisfying, our Royal Blue Stilton is perfect as a snacking cheese or as an ingredient. (8 oz.)
• Sage Derby - Don't be afraid of the green! Pulverized sage leaves are mixed with water then added to the curd of Derby cheese to create this striking example of English cheesemaking ingenuity. A mild and herbaceous cow's milk cheese, Sage Derby is the ultimate party cheese. (8 oz.)
• Cotswold - Also known as "Pub Cheese," Cotswold is the name given to this hearty cheese that combines orange Double Gloucester cheese with flavorful bits of chive and onion. A harmonious blend of mellow, crumbly cheese and powerful vegetables, Cotswold is a terrific complement to the softer, more mild flavors on your cheese board. (8 0z.)

Assortment includes four 1/2 pound cuts of cheese.

• Please note that any item temporarily out of stock will be substituted with a similar item of equal value.

This item is not packaged as a gift. If you would like the gift packaged version of this item please click here.

The Cheese and Sausage Select Gift Box from Figi's has been a been a family gift favorite for over 40 years. This gourmet cheese and sausage assortment is a terrific sampler package of summer sausage and delicious Wisconsin cheese. The gift box contains Mettwurst Sausage, All Beef Sausage, Cheddar Cheese, Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Brick Cheese, and Baby Swiss Cheese. This perfect taste combination is a gourmet treat for a birthday, thank you, or the holidays. Available September through May.

Ekte Gjetost is a sweet, brown, firm cheese, made solely from pure goat's milk which is boiled under pressure until caramelization occurs. Stronger than regular Gjetost, it is widely popular among Scandinavians. Children especially enjoy its sweet flavor and fudge-like texture. Traditionally, this cheese is cut into very thin slices and eaten at breakfast with toast or crispbread.

• Made from pasteurized goat's milk.
• Photo depicts whole 17.5 ounce form of cheese.

The first truly new and unique fruit to be discovered since the kiwi in the 1970's, Peppadew is not only rich in flavor but also has great nutritional benefits. Whole sweet piquante peppers from South Africa's northern provinces are blended with a secret recipe that makes every juicy mouthful simply unforgettable. Quite unlike anything we've ever eaten, this unusually tasty treat is delicious served with almost anything. We especially love it with a simple goat cheese salad. Available in mild and hot for those who like their peppers with a little more heat.

Varieties sold separately.

In the proud tradition of St. Patrick's Day, we are thrilled to present four of our favorite Irish cheeses in this carefully selected assortment. For decades, Irish cheeses were a secret; enjoyed only by our friends "across the pond". Now, we are lucky enough to carry these four cheeses.

• Cashel Blue: This wonderful farmhouse blue cheese hails from Tipperary. Using only fresh cows milk from their fresian herd, Louis and Jane Grubb have produced this masterpiece. Ideal for melting or after dinner with some port. (8 oz.)
• Dubliner tastes of a mature Cheddar, with the sweet aftertaste of Reggiano. Created by the Irish company Kerrygold and named after Ireland's capital city, this cheese shares traits with several well-known cheeses, but the combination creates a flavor that is completely unique. (8 oz.)
• Cahill Farm Cheddar with Porter Ale is a visually intriguing cheese. Mixed with dark porter ale during the cheesemaking process, this cheese has a marbled effect with dark brown veins. Imported from Ireland, it has a surprising meaty flavor and is obviously a perfect match for ale. (8 oz.)
• Our Shamrock Cheddar is aged for over 12 months and has a creamy, taut texture and sweet, grassy flavor. The milk for this "bitey" cheddar is taken from cows grazing the green grass of southeast Ireland, an area traditionally known as "The Garden of Ireland". This environment produces rich, creamy milk that is perfect for cheese making. (8 oz.)

• Please note that any item temporarily out of stock will be substituted with a similar item of equal value.

This item is not packaged as a gift. If you would like the gift packaged version of this item please click here.

Tillamook Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar is aged over 15 months to give it the most robust, most complex flavor of the yellow cheddars. We recommend it for gourmet side dishes, as a complement to smoked salmon on a cheese board and as a must-have ingredient in homemade sauces.

World- Famous Tillamook ® Cheddar Cheese, Medium in popular 2 lb. Baby Loaf ® made in Tillamook, Oregon.

Cotswold Double Gloucester with onions and chives. Cotswold, a region in South Western England, has a smooth cheddar like texture with the flavors of onions and chives. This is a great cheese served with a rustic bread and ale.

The world's most famous melting cheese, Raclette is made in the Alps on both sides of the French-Swiss border. The French version is perhaps a bit softer than Swiss Raclette, but the two taste very similar. Raclette has a semi-soft interior dotted with small holes and a rosy inedible rind. Eaten as a table cheese, Raclette has a smooth, creamy taste that is neither too salty nor sharp. However, our French Raclette tends to have a strong, pungent aroma that is not for the timid. This cheese is traditionally melted (a half wheel is placed in a fireplace, then the melted top surface is continuously scraped off) and layered atop boiled potatoes, pickles, fresh vegetables and sliced meats. Check out our recipes and try it for yourself!

• Made from pasteurized cow's milk.
• Photo depicts whole 12 lb. form of cheese.
• We cut and wrap this item by the pound.
• Please contact us if you would like to purchase the whole form.

Piccante, the spicier more aged grade of Provolone originated in southern Italy and is a fine all-purpose cheese that is commonly used in antipasto, sandwiches and salads.

The first truly new and unique fruit to be discovered since the kiwi in the 1970's, Peppadew is not only rich in flavor but also has great nutritional benefits. Whole sweet piquante peppers from South Africa's northern provinces are blended with a secret recipe that makes every juicy mouthful simply unforgettable. Quite unlike anything we've ever eaten, this unusually tasty treat is delicious served with almost anything. We especially love it with a simple goat cheese salad. Available in mild and hot for those who like their peppers with a little more heat.

Varieties sold separately.

From the historic Wensleydale Creamery in England, this latest creation quickly made waves at the New York Fancy Food Show last summer. Creamy, buttery cheddar is perfectly blended with tangy, caramelized onions to produce a new English favorite. As versatile as it is addictive, this new cheddar, also known as Abbot's Gold, has livened up everything from simple sandwiches to hot dogs and grilled portabellas in the igourmet kitchen. A must try for fans of Cotswold, Harlech and Tintern.

• Made from pasteurized cow's milk.
• Photo depicts whole 2.5 lb. form of cheese.
• We cut and wrap this item by the 1/2 pound.
• Please contact us if you would like to purchase the whole form.

Looking for some extra zest in your cheddar? Smoked Black Pepper White Cheddar will give the palate the smooth texture of the white cheddar combined with a burst of smokey black pepper.

Just thinking about this assortment of four half-pound cuts of wonderful Dutch cheeses makes our mouths water. The Dutch are world famous for their cheesemaking prowess and these selections will show you why.

• Extra Aged Gouda: Ripened for a full 18 months to develop a nutty, caramel-like flavor, this is the Gouda the Dutch keep for themselves! Beemster is always a crowd pleaser.
• Leyden: Dotted with cumin seeds, this pasteurized cow's milk cheese has a warm, beefy flavor. A wonderfully firm texture makes this cheese perfect for slicing.
• Dorothea: A real specialty and an igourmet.com exclusive, this wonderful goat's milk cheese flavored with potato skins and basil oil will send your taste buds into fits of pleasure! Even people who claim to dislike goat cheeses love this goat gouda.
• Maasdam: Originally created in Norway, then perfected in Holland, "Maasdam" is Dutch for "baby Swiss." This young cow's milk cheese offers a sweet, nutty flavor with a wonderfully tangy aftertaste.

This assortment ships with one half-pound of each cheese selection.

Please note that any item temporarily out of stock will be substituted with a similar item of equal value.

This item is not packaged as a gift. If you would like the gift packaged version of this item please click here.

White cheddar with cranberry for color, spice and tartness.

Handcrafted cheese, made in small batches from the milk of Jersey cows that graze on several Vermont family farms, is what makes Grafton cheddar one of Vermont's, and the country's, finest artisanal cheeses. Grafton cheddar has no chemical additives, synthetic growth hormones or preservatives. Aged for approximately two years and hand-dipped in black wax, Classic Reserve is the signature product of Grafton Village Cheese and boasts 13 awards. Aging gives the cheese a long time to release its moisture, concentrating and developing its flavors. The extra high butterfat content of the Jersey cow has a creaminess that offsets the "sharpness" caused by the lactic acid in the cheese.

Royal George cheese is named after the founder of the cheesemakers' English dairy. It was in 1957 that George Kenyon started to make his traditional English cheeses in the ancient market town of Garstang, where the ruins of the royalist Greenhalgh Castle (c1490) stand.

The sons of George, Neil and John, have since been producing Kosher cheese for the UK market and are now the leading UK Kosher cheese producers under the Chevington label. Royal George cheeses are the first ever English cheeses to be certified Kosher by the O.U. and the varieties available are Cheddar, Red Leicester and Double Gloucester.

The cheese is Cholov Yisroael and is suitable for Passover. It is made to the very highest of standards to be delicious and flavorsome and was available at Kosherfest 2004 for us to sample for the first time. The launch of Royal George label at Kosherfest is the event of the year for this English Cheesemaker.

Red Leicester is a mellow cheese with a hard, granular texture. It gets its bright red color from the addition of annatto, which is ground achiote seed from the annatto tree. Red Leicester is a rather young cheese, as it is only aged for 10 to 12 weeks. As it ripens, it develops a distinct nuttiness and faint lemony finish that separates it from all other English cheeses.

• Kosher for Passover by the O.U.
• Made from pasteurized cow's milk.
• Photo depicts whole 7 oz. form of cheese.

This spicy combo brings excitement to your Mexican dishes, adds spark to your sandwiches, and livens up your cheese platters.

When you sample the first slice of your fresh Villegas La Mancha sheep's milk cheese you will recognize that this is truly an artisan product made by hand. It is one of our favorites. Because this fresh cheese has only aged for about two weeks it is very smooth and buttery, and bone white in color. Its texture is somewhat similar to goat's milk cheese, but its flavor is much richer. The milk used to make this wonderful cheese is identical to that used in all of the other Villajos prize winning Manchego cheeses. The only difference is that it was removed from curing after only 10-15 days! For this reason the Villegas is too young to earn the official D.O. Manchego designation. We choose it for everyday eating at breakfast with fruit. You can also serve slices or wedges of this pleasant cheese as tapas or snacks with olives, accompanied by sherry, beer or sangria. We serve it as a light dessert accompanied by traditional membrillo - quince preserve - fig or date wheels, fresh fruit or honey. The Villegas pasteurized fresh sheep's milk cheese is a part of a remarkable family of cheeses that are produced in a remote village in La Mancha. The cheeses are made in a small facility that originally was the Villajos family home, following traditional methods! They use pure fresh ewe's milk from the unique Manchega breed of sheep that graze on the pastures surrounding the village. The Villajos family has created an extraordinary line of cheeses due to cheese making skills of Beni, their master cheese maker. He draws from the experience of generations past, and makes a limited amount, allowing him to pay meticulous attention to detail. Their flagship cheese has been awarded four Gran Selección prizes in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006 by the regional Government of Castilla--La Mancha. It is a hitherto unheard of accomplishment.

Vella Cheese is an old timer in the world of making great American cheeses. Tom Vella began making cheese in 1931 in the Sonoma Valley of California. The company is now run by his son, Ig Vella, and is famous for its Jack cheeses. Jack cheese was created in the Gold Rush Days in Monterey, California by a Scotsman, named David Jacks. This Special Select Jack has all the same characteristics as Vella's regular Dry Jack, with its hard, pale yellow interior and sweet, nutty flavor. It is aged for a full year (as opposed to seven months) to develop an even harder texture and more intense flavor, making it similar to a Parmigiano Reggiano. This cheese goes well with fruit and wine and is excellent shaved over pasta.

• Made from cultured cow's milk.
• Suitable for vegetarians
• Photo depicts whole 8 lb. form of cheese.
• We cut and wrap this item by the 1/2 pound.
• Please contact us if you would like to purchase the whole form.

Tillamook Colby Jack Cheese is the delightful result of the wedding of Colby and Monterey Jack cheese. The combination creates a gentle, savory flavor, while the mixing of the cheeses yellow and white colors gives it a visual appeal unlike any other specialty cheese.

Tillamook ® Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar is aged over 15 months to give it the most robust, most complex flavor of the yellow cheddars.

The name of this cheese translates to "white lacquer cheese", which refers to its varnish-like mold surface. A long time German traditional cheese.

This cheese is a step away from Limburger.

Canadian Cheddar Cheese Black Diamond Grand Reserve Aged 2 Years. Robert F. Hart began making this fine Canadian cheddar in 1933. Today, Black Diamond is probably Canada's most well-known cheddar. The "Grand Reserve" signifies that this cheddar is aged a minimum of two years. Made from raw milk, this cheddar is encased in black wax has a sharp, robust, tangy flavor. Made from unpasteurized cow's milk.

Often referred to as a sweet take on Swiss Emmental, this nutty, mild cheese gets its characteristic appearance of large "eyes" (holes) and a domed top from a special beneficial bacteria which emits carbon dioxide during the maturation process. Marketed under numerous brand names such as Leerdam and Mondrian, Maasdam is a perfect complement for salads and sandwiches and is ideal for melting.

• Made from pasteurized cow's milk.
• Photo depicts whole 28 lb. form of cheese.
• We cut and wrap this item by the 1/2 pound.
• Please contact us if you would like to purchase the whole form.

Our New York cheddar cheese is extra sharp, meaning, it is aged for well over a year and has a hearty, rich flavor.ÊIt is packed in a black wax which will preserve the flavor and present itself well as a gift or for serving at your next party.New York cheddar cheese is the most popular cheese to use with Tex-Mex dishes, when shredded in tacos, melted over tortilla chips, or stuffed and melted in Jalapeno peppers.ÊTry it in omelettes and souffles, over baked potatoes, melted as a cheese fondue, melted over hamburgers and hot dogs, as the main cheese in Macaroni & Cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches. ÊEach wax-packed brick can make about 140 cracker-size slices.ÊWe can only ship this product during the cooler months, so please order quickly...