U.S. Championship Cheese Contest Declares a Winner

The U.S. Champion Cheese Contest has crowned a champion. An aged Gouda named Europa from Arethusa Farm Dairy in Bantam, Connecticut, was named the 2023 U.S. Champion Cheese! Head Cheesemaker Eric Schmid was surprised by the announcement. Schmid says he is originally from Wisconsin and moved east to help them make some great cheese, and he’s very proud to be involved with Arethusa Farm Dairy. “We get our milk from five local producers including our own milk on the farm. I owe it to the great farming practices local to us. This is a great honor.”

The first runner-up was Vintage Cupola American Original Cheese from Team Door Artisan Cheese Company for Red Barn Family Farms in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, with a score of 98.613. The second runner-up was a Medium Cheddar from Dillon Sylla’s team at Associated Milk Producers Inc. in Blair, Wisconsin, with a score of 98.554.

A team of 42 judges evaluated 2,249 entries in many classes for the various types of cheese.  The finalists included nine cheese entries from Wisconsin, two from Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, and one each from Minnesota, Connecticut, Vermont, Idaho, and California.

The U.S. Championship Cheese Contest began in 1981 and is the nation’s premier technical cheese, butter, and yogurt competition.  This year marks the 21^st biennial edition.

EDITOR’S TAKE:

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s U.S. Cheese Contest! There were a lot of entries and it sounds like the competition was pretty fierce, but it was up to the judges to sort things out and declare a winner. Cheese is an important product of the dairy industry, one which consumers purchase a lot of for everything from salads to burgers. Sales of cheese help support the price of milk and keep dairy farmers in business. Oh, by the way, did we mention that dairy farmers purchase a lot of trucks? Well, they do, and this year is no different. Reach out to the dairy farmers in your area through AgTruckTrader.com and show them what you have to offer.