Inside the ACS Judging & Competition (2024)

Editor's note: Cheesemonger and author Gordon Edgar recently shared his experience as the Good Food Award's vegan cheese informant. Previously he shared a review of Ending the War on Artisan Cheese. Now he's back with the scoop on what it's like to judge cheese for the American Cheese Society.

Judges receiving instructions photo credit Gordon Edgar

The judging room isn’t loud, but it isn’t hushed.  It’s a big room inside the University of Minnesota Huntington Bank Stadium (University of Minnesota) and there is a lot of room between the tables. Judges, stewards, and committee members of the American Cheese Society’s Judging and Competition Committee are generally trying to keep their voices low enough so as not to disturb others, but you hear the words and phrases of cheese celebration and disappointment as the judges fill out their scorecards: “Diacetyl,” “Slight unclean,” “Rustic appearance,” “Whey taint.”

 By the Numbers

Tools for judging photo credit Gordon Edgar

I was in Minneapolis for the 2024 American Cheese Society Judging and Competition. 1596 cheeses and other dairy products made from the U.S., Canada, and the Americas were there as well. 133 separate categories were judged by eighteen teams of judges over two days before a Best of Show winner was determined by judges tasting the category winners. That’s a lot of cheese over the course of two days! I will spare descriptive details, but please note that a wine spit bucket may be disgusting, but a cheese spit bucket is worse.

Judges coats at ACS Judging photo credit Gordon Edgar

Before heading to Minnesota in June, I hadn’t judged the competition for a while. After judging ACS ten times or so, I joined the committee to help put the event on. The behind the scenes work at any event like this is hard to describe and mostly unseen, but it takes a lot of organization and a bunch of people to receive, temp, categorize and anonymize that many foods in a couple of days. For personal reasons, I took a leave from the committee in 2022 but jumped at the chance to judge again when asked.

The Value of Competitions

Gordon Edgar and Marianne Smukowski photo credit American Cheese Society and Valerie Tobias of Dairy Connections

As a cheesemonger, what I love about the American Cheese Society Judging and Competition is having two days of cheese in its purest form.  The competition is anonymous so there are no sales pitches, no branding, no marketing and no personal past history. It’s just you, your partner, the dairy product and your senses. Not only is it a break from the day-to-day of cheese selling, the judging and competition is a chance to give honest feedback to producers that they can use to improve their products.  That was the initial concept of this competition back in the days when the entries were in the double digits and 40 years later it is still the main point of emphasis.  Most entries won’t win awards, but everyone will get a professional analysis of their cheese.

Styles of Judging 

There are different types of cheese competitions, each with their own benefits to consumers and producers.  The most popular is the 4H method where judges walk around a room to different entries, taste the cheese and judge it as “gold” “silver” or “bronze”.  If the judges don’t agree, they can discuss before deciding on a final award. If all vote for “gold” it becomes a “super gold”.  There are no score sheets for this style judging and is easier to manage for things like State and County fairs.

Judging photo credit American Cheese Society and Valerie Tobias of Dairy Connections

Most of the long-term professional judging have only technical judges: dairy scientists and professional graders who evaluate the cheeses.  They start at a perfect score of 100 and deduct points for flaws. Technically amazing cheeses win these events, but the Best of Show may not be super interesting to the consumer. A perfect cheese may be a thing of beauty in the professional’s hands and mouth, but not necessarily get anyone excited on a grazing board.

Tina McGarry Mooney and David Lockwood ACS Judging 2024 photo credit Gordon Edgar

The ACS competition tries to meld the best practices of the technical competition while encouraging stronger, more unique flavors. A technical judge (working down from 50) is paired with an aesthetic judge.  Aesthetic judges generally work are experienced non-technical cheese professionals: mongers, distributors, retailers. These are folks, myself included,  who have an eye towards novel appearance, unusual styles, and interesting, sometimes unexpected, flavor so -- while the technical keeps the competition grounded --the aesthetic awards points (up to 50) for flavors and attributes they like.  A rind could lose a point from the technical judge for an uneven appearance but be awarded a point for a “rustic” appearance that makes it stand out in a cheese case.

Theoretically this rewards people trying hard to make new interesting cheese with big flavors.  These cheeses were often unrecognized in other competitions and the goal of the American Cheese Society was to promote artisan cheesemaking.  As everyone reading this probably knows, real artisan cheese making needs to be appreciated not only for great and expected flavors and textures, but also for those beautiful imperfections and unexpected happenings that – years later – become standards that others try to achieve.

And the Results Are…

I rolled a lot of cheese and dairy around my mouth over forty-eight hours.  For the most part it was a journey of aesthetic aging. A joy of judgement. A dairy delight! While I admit  that the palette gets a little tired of fifteen cheeses into a flavored category, it is still such an honor knowing that you are tasting the other ten because you are trying to help all cheese get better. And – from the first time I judged until now – the difference in quality is tremendous.

So, who won?  I can’t tell you because I don’t know!

The competition takes anonymity seriously and even the judges won’t know until everyone does when they are announced at the annual American Cheese Society Conference on July 11. Put it on your calendar so you can have a new list of cheese to check out for the next twelve months.