The Best American Made Goudas | The Cheese Professor

Gouda, Niederlande, Stadtzentrum credit Ralf Roletschek, CC BY 3.0

Go u da is the most famous cheese of the Netherlands, loved worldwide for its notably sweet yet balanced flavor. Perhaps more than most cheeses, it undergoes a remarkable transformation when aged beyond a couple of years, developing incredible sweet notes. It is also a cheese that has traditionally been flavored with spices and herbs. While some of the finest Goudas are made in the Netherlands, a good number of outstanding interpretations are also produced by members of North America’s growing artisan cheese community, some of whom (Stuyt, Oakdale, Frisian Farms Cheese House and Marieke) are immigrants from the Netherlands or have Dutch heritage. The following is a roundup of some of the best Goudas made in the United States, including young, aged, and flavored examples.

Stuyt Dairy Diamond Reserve

Stuyt Dairy, California

Since 2015, family-operated Stuyt Dairy has produced farmstead, raw-milk cheese, focusing primarily on Dutch-style Gouda. The Diamond Reserve is aged more than nine months, producing a cheese with rich flavors of caramel and butterscotch and a firm, crystalized texture. Stuyt also offers a 60-day aged mild Gouda, and a line of flavored Goudas that includes cumin, smoked, bacon, garlic herb, onion parsley, jalapeno, and habanero flavors.

Details: Made from raw cow’s milk

Pairing and serving suggestions: fresh-cut apple, sweet pepper jelly, fresh tomato soup, sprinkled on garlic bread, rich stout or porter, and Sonoma chardonnay

E u ropa

Arethusa Farm, Connecticut

Arethusa Farm produces a full line of dairy products from a renovated, 130-year-old dairy farm near Litchfield, Conn. This young Gouda is one of a line of cheeses produced since 2011. Europa features “wispy aromas of butterscotch and toasted nuts that give way to a savory, brothy flavor.” The company notes that its smooth, dense paste makes Europa a great cheese for melting—"on burgers, sandwiches, or a bowl of piping hot soup.”

Details: Made from cow’s milk, aged 6-12 months, wheels weigh 17-18 pounds

Suggested pairings: brown ales, Scotch whisky

Urban Stead Gouda

Urban Stead Cheese, Ohio

Scott and Andrea Robbins started Urban Stead Cheese in 2018 to “create a great local product that had a sense of community.” Working in a retrofitted medical clinic, they produce small batches of handmade cheese including the Gouda, a quark, a camembert, cheese curds and Street Ched, a traditional, clothbound Cheddar. The natural rind Gouda is aged 18-20 months. The milk for their cheeses comes from Bohl’s Jerseys—a third generation family farm located about an hour away in Mowrystown, Ohio. “Our mission is to make old-world artisanal style cheese.” Andrea says. Most Goudas have a wax rind, she points out, and while a natural rind requires more attention: “We believe it provides for a greater depth of flavor.” Experts seem to agree. Urban Stead Gouda won several awards in 2024 alone, including a gold medal at the World Cheese Awards in Portugal. The Gouda evokes flavors of salted caramel and toffee with a remarkably long-lasting umami finish. On Fridays and Saturdays, the creamery staffs a full-service tasting room, where customers from the Evanston/East Walnut Hills neighborhood can enjoy the cheeses along with wine, craft beers and cocktails. The company’s products are available throughout Ohio, in some neighboring states, and at select locations elsewhere.

Details: Made from pasteurized local Jersey cow’s milk and aged at least 18 months

Suggested pairings: chardonnay, Pilsner, stout, cider, apple chutney, Marcona almonds, and peanut brittle

Point Reyes Farmstead Gouda

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, California

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese operates from a bay-side farm purchased in 1959 by the Giacomini family. Since cheese production began in 2000, the company, run by three sisters, has become mainly well-known for its outstanding blue cheeses. This traditional Gouda has won a variety of awards, most recently the “Best of California” at the California State Fair in 2024. It is described as having a creamy texture with small amounts of crystallization, delivering pops of texture and complex flavor. This artisan cheese offers notes of butterscotch, caramel, toasted hazelnuts, and cooked cream.

Details: Made from pasteurized cow’s milk with microbial (vegetarian) rennet, aged 10 months or more, wheels weigh 20 pounds

Suggested pairings: toasted almonds, Scotch, Bourbon, sweet white wines, craft beers

Marieke® Holy Trinity Mélange

Marieke® Gouda, Wisconsin

Marieke Penterman began making Gouda in Thorpe, Wisconsin, in 2006 and has changed the landscape of American artisan Gouda. Just last year, Penterman became a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker, and in the years between, her company has grown and developed a robust line of young, aged, and flavored cheeses. The Holy Trinity Mélange is a flavored Gouda that takes its name from the so-called holy trinity of Cajun cooking, which features specific ratios of celery, onion and bell pepper. The cheese also invites garlic and chive along for the ride, creating a zesty flavor combo. Flavored Goudas are typically young and moist, so they are great melters that spice up a multitude of dishes with their savory ingredients.

Details: Made from raw cow’s milk, aged 60-180 days

Suggested pairings: Sauvignon Blanc, brown ale, apples, and dried pineapple

Jake’s Nettle Blend Baby Gouda

Jake’s Gouda Cheese, New York

Jake’s Gouda produces primarily Gouda cheese in the traditional Holland style from a 200-acre farm in Deansboro, in upstate New York. The owners Jake and Sylvia Stoltzfus, moved from Pennsylvania to New York more than 20 years ago. Among their most popular cheeses is Nettle Blend, a young Gouda, described as “softer and smoother than its aged counterpart.” This cheese contains nettle, chives, celery, parsley, onion, and garlic for a savory flavor with herbal notes reminiscent of chicken soup. The company says their fine, raw-milk Gouda cheeses are turned daily on pine planks to ensure uniform age and perfection, “just as cheesemakers have been doing Holland for centuries.”

Details: Made from raw cow’s milk, aged 60 days or more

Suggested pairings: sweet preserves, almonds, cured meats, and red wines

Lindale

Goat Lady Dairy, North Carolina

Since 1995, Goat Lady Dairy has been making a variety of handmade, artisan cheeses in Central North Carolina. Lindale is a cow’s milk Gouda made with the traditional methods which include washing and cooking the curds, and pressing under whey. Lindale is cave aged for four eight months, developing a silky texture and sweet, buttery flavor.

Details: Made from raw Cow’s Milk, aged: 4-8 months

Pairings and serving suggestions: milk chocolate, mango chutney, bacon, porter, brown ale

Hill Valley Dairy Luna

Hill Valley Dairy, Wisconsin

Hill Valley Dairy was founded in 2016 and sources its milk from the owner’s family farm, Romari Farms, founded in 1942. Luna is a cave-aged, natural rind alpine/Gouda hybrid, and was entered in the “hard cheese w/ natural rind” category at the 2022 World Cheese Championship, winning third place in its category. This cheese has a nutty and tangy flavor, with the rind providing a touch of crunchiness and an earthy flavor.

Details: Made from cow’s milk, aged: 6 months or more

Suggested pairings: bolder wines, dark chocolate, dried fruits, fresh berries

Oakdale Mild Gouda

Oakdale Creamery Mild Gouda — Oakdale Gouda photo credit Cecily Ray Photography

Oakdale Creamery, California

This national award-winning cheese is a great example of a young Gouda, presenting creamy and buttery flavor notes with a pleasant smooth texture. The company says it is great for snacking and melting and ratcheting up a sandwich. It pairs well with your favorite light-bodied red wine. Oakdale uses pasteurized cow’s milk from local farms and vegetarian rennet in this cheese and in its aged and smoked Goudas. This family-run operation opened in 1983, but has Dutch cheesemaking roots that reach back for generations.

Details: Made from pasteurized Holstein milk, aged approximately three months

Suggested pairings and serving: Merlot, apples, sourdough grilled cheese

Marieke® Gouda Reserve

Marieke® Gouda, Wisconsin

The makers at Marieke coax this one along for at least 1000 days, and sometimes for up to four years. “It has the traditional crystals of aged Gouda but it also maintains the rich and creamy texture of a younger Gouda.” Marieke says. Indeed while most extra-aged Goudas become flinty and brittle, this cheese maintains some suppleness, while offering crunchy crystals. It’s almost like an aged cheddar in that regard, while offering rich sweet and savory flavor notes.

Details: Made from raw cow’s milk, aged approximately 3-4 years

Suggested pairing: apples, honey, oats, crusty bread and mustards, whiskey and hard cider

Sagittarius

Shooting Star Creamery, California

This fantastic young cheese from young cheesemaker Avery Jones was in our spotlight in 2023, and deserves a mention here. Among American-made Goudas it is a bit unique for its use of blended sheep’s and cow’s milks. Aged 3-4 months, this is a sweet cheese with a rich, silky mouthfeel. In her spotlight piece, Cheese Professor contributor Pamela Vachon suggested pairing its buttery notes with popcorn, and with pinot noir, which sounds amazing. We would also suggest trying it with a Belgian saison, and it begs to be paired with dark chocolate. This one would be lovely on a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Read more about Sagittarius.

Details: Made from pasteurized cow’s and sheep’s milk, aged 3-4 months

Suggested pairings: country ham, pinot noir, dark chocolate and saison beer

Marieke® Smoked Gouda

Marieke® Gouda, Wisconsin

Smoked cheeses can sometimes turn tragic, but award-winning cheesemaker Marieke Penterman’s raw milk, farmstead Goudas are all miraculous. For this multiple award winner, a younger cheese is treated to a short rest over cold hickory smoke. The gentle smokey aroma complements the sweet flavor of the cheese rather than clobbering it.

Details: Made from raw Cow’s Milk, aged 60 days or more

Pairing and serving suggestions: dried cherries, toasted cashews a stout, a malt-forward lager or a pinot noir

Sneek

Frisian Farms Cheese House, Iowa

Frisian Farms Cheese House is a family-owned operation focused entirely on making Gouda. Founder Mike Bandstra says that the decision to focus entirely on the style reflected his family’s heritage, and that of the Central Iowa town of Pella where the family farm was located. While he and his brother Jason had been making farmstead cheese about 15 years ago, the farm operation was segregated when the current creamery was built in 2015, Sneek is one of 14-15 Goudas that Frisian Farms produces, and it is a classic, super-aged cheese that undergoes at least 1000 days of aging. It is named after a town in the Friesland region of the Netherlands which was the birthplace of Mike’s great grandfather who was one the first in the family to immigrate to the States. With a flinty texture and well-developed crystals, it provides a deep rich flavor with notes of caramel, butterscotch, toast and toffee. While the cheese was in short supply after the pandemic, Mike expects it to be back in full circulation this year locally and in select markets in the Midwest and on the coasts.

Details: Made from locally sourced cow’s milk and microbial (vegetarian) rennet, aged 1000 days

Pairings and serving suggestions: A fruity Riesling or a light pinot noir, pears, apples, figs, fruit chutney or jam, snacking with crackers, shredded on pasta or salads

TomaRashi

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, California

A few years back, the creative team at Point Reyes developed three flavored variations on the creamery’s popular and versatile Toma. Toma is described by Point Reyes Farmstead as “Part young Gouda. Part traditional Havarti.” and perhaps the most interesting in the “Tomas with Attitude” line is TomaRashi, with its blend of heat, umami and nutty flavors. The key to the complex, remarkable flavor is Shichimi Togarashi, a Japanese spice blend containing chili flakes, nigella, chili powder, orange peel, ginger powder and nori. The result is a gentle heat that warms the palate gradually, with a multitude of novel flavor notes, in a silky, creamy cheese.

Details: Made from pasteurized cow’s milk and microbial (vegetarian) rennet, aged 90 days

Pairing and serving suggestions: melted into egg dishes, with seaweed for a snack, included in Mexican food, gin and tonic a light lager or sake