Highlights of Whole Foods’ 12 Days of Cheese 2024
Whole Foods Market 12 Days of Cheese 2024
Every year since before the dawn of my cheese consciousness, (or about 12 years ago,) Whole Foods Market has graced us during the holiday season with its 12 Days of Cheese Promotion. Kicking off this year on December 13, with a poetic conclusion on December 24, 12 Days of Cheese is back. While peace on earth is more and more of a pipe dream these days, goodwill to men in the form of deeply discounted cheese is well within our grasp thanks to Whole Foods.
Read on for everything you need to know about this year’s 12 Days of Cheese promotion, including the mechanics of the discount, the lineup of cheeses, and a few selections we are particularly excited about this year.
A Huge Discount on 12 Cheeses for 12 Days
Once upon a time, Whole Foods would offer a big discount on just one cheese a day for 12 consecutive days. Even given a deep discount, multiple trips to Whole Foods during the holiday season to collect several cheeses is more the stuff of the naughty list than the nice one. Since 2021, however, Whole Foods has offered a slightly smaller discount than from Days of yore, but all 12 cheeses are available for all 12 days of the promotion, for 28% off their typical retail price.
If you’ve got an Amazon Prime account, the season is made extra bright during the 12 Days of Cheese promotion: Prime members get 35% off of all 12 cheeses. In order to capitalize on that additional 7%, you must download the Whole Foods app and sync to your Amazon Prime account. This will generate a barcode to use at checkout. If your location allows for Whole Foods delivery through purchasing online via Amazon, you can get the 35% discount on cheese without leaving your couch. (Which will surely make you feel like you must have been extra nice this year.)
12 Days of Cheese 2024 Featured Cheeses
Whole Foods Market Celebration Cheese Sampler Platter
Those of us more likely to have salted curds than sugar plums dancing in our heads this time of year eagerly await the annual 12 Days of Cheese lineup, which is typically announced the first week of December. Advent calendars are great and all, but as we’ve learned from Whole Foods in seasons past, one cheese a day will never be as fun as taking home the whole bounty in a single session. Whether your cheese plate needs run mild or wild — or ideally a little bit of both — the 12 Days of Cheese promotion makes it easy to get a good variety between different animal milks, styles, and even colors.
Without further adieu, cue the 12 drummers drumming for the announcement of this year’s 12 cheeses:
● Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve
● Sartori Herbs de Provence BellaVitano
● Jasper Hill Presto Prosecco Washed Harbison
● Papillon Roquefort Révélation
● Neal’s Yard Dairy Sparkenhoe Red Leicester
● Emmi Kaltbach Cave Aged Le Gruyère
● Ca de Ambros Taleggio (Forever Cheese)
● Mitica Alisios (Forever Cheese)
For a deeper dive into several of these cheeses, producers, or distributors, check out Cheese 101 Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Cowgirl Creamery, Past, Present, and Future, BellaVitano: A Most Versatile Cheese from Wisconsin, All About Brebis, How Sparkenhoe is Saving Red Leicester, and Meet Michelle Buster of Forever Cheese.
Cypress Grove Midnight Moon
Cypress Grove Midnight Moon
“Midnight Moon” has always sounded very flower child to me in name, but there’s no denying it can also easily lean holiday season. (Cue “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”) I’m especially happy to see it, as Midnight Moon was my personal conversion cheese -- the first taste of something other than grocery store blocks that opened my eyes to the world of fancier cheese than that which I was accustomed to. As a holiday cheese, it is a go-getter, an aged, goat’s milk gouda-style cheese with an appreciable nuttiness and an appealing tyrosine crunch. It is arguably the most family friendly of the cheeses here; a crowd pleaser that will pretty much never evoke a “bah humbug” from anyone. Looking for a holiday miracle? Try Midnight Moon with someone who is convinced they don’t like goat cheese.
Sartori Herbs de Provence BellaVitano
Sartori Cheese Bellavitano Herbs De Provence
Sartori’s BellaVitano line is a staple of party cheese boards. The base cheese itself is an Wisconsin-based, American original, an easygoing mashup of gouda and parmesan in flavor. Its remixes are numerous, and you can find BellaVitano with about a dozen different finishes, from espresso, to wine, to whiskey, to herbs and spices. Herbs de Provence is an especially festive and intriguing selection, a conversation starter more than a crowd pleaser, whose rind rub includes parsley, lemon, garlic, and lavender among other flavors.
Ca de Ambros Taleggio
Ca de Ambros Taleggio
The 12 Days of Cheese lineup always includes a blue cheese, and typically includes a washed Harbison, but neither of those selections really fulfill a craving for something funky. Taleggio, made by a multi-generational family of affineurs in Valtaleggio, is a welcome addition to this year’s selections, then. A pasteurized cow’s milk cheese with just enough aging for a paste that is steady but supple, with a characteristic pink-orange rind to herald the bold flavor to come. Consider this the ultimate peacemaker cheese: strong enough to appeal to those with an adventurous palate, but gentle enough in its waftiness as to not drive others away from the cheese board.