TABLE OF CONTENTS
Best Swedish Cheese Types
Västerbotten is a Swedish cheese made from cow's milk. The name refers to the Västerbotten region in northern Sweden. The paste is adorned with tiny eyes and has a firm, granular texture. In flavor, the cheese is salty and sweet, similar to a cross between Cheddar and Parmesan.
Every wheel must age for at least 14 months before it can be consumed. It is believed that the cheese was invented in 1872 by Ulrika Eleonora Lindström, a dairy maid who was left alone while stirring the curd, but she also had regular meetings with her lover, so the cheese was considered a failure at first, but when it was tasted, people thought it had a special flavor.
Gräddost is a traditional cheese originating from Sweden, its name meaning cream cheese when translated. The cheese is made from pasteurized cow's milk and it's usually left to age for up to 7 months. Underneath its waxed rind, the texture is smooth and creamy with small eyes dispersed throughout the body.
The aromas are nutty, while the flavors are usually mild, sweet, and nutty with fresh and tangy hints. Due to the fact that Gräddost melts well, it's often used on pizzas or in sandwiches. It's recommended to pair the cheese with Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, and Chenin Blanc.
Pair with
Prästost is a cheddar-style cheese originating from Sweden. Its name means Priest Cheese, referring to the fact that it was made in churches in the 16th through 19th centuries, and the cheese was used as a form of payment instead of money.
Nowadays, it's mostly produced in factories. Prästost has a creamy semi-soft texture, the aromas are intense and rich, while the flavors are strong, salty, and spicy. Due to its strong flavors, it's often enjoyed as a snack or in soups. There are also versions of this cheese that are cured in whiskey (Saaland Pfarr cheese) or Absolut vodka (VODCheese).
Grevé is a traditional semi-hard cheese. It's made from pasteurized cow's milk and aged for about 10 months. This emmental-style cheese was first produced in Örnsköldsvik in 1964. Underneath its green waxed rind, the texture is smooth and creamy, with large, walnut-sized eyes dispersed throughout the body.
The flavors are mild and nutty with a slightly sharp finish. It's recommended to use Grevé as a table cheese and pair it with a glass of beer or white wine. Grevé also melts well and it can be used in various baked dishes.
Svecia is a cylindrical, semi-hard cheese made from cow's milk, with a waxed rind exterior and a light yellow to yellow interior with small holes dispersed throughout. It is left to mature for a minimum of two months, after which it develops a full-bodied, acidic flavor.
Svecia is produced only in the low areas of Sweden and its name is derived from the old Latin word Suecia, which means 'Sweden'. It goes well on sandwiches, with figs and jam, or used in cooking because it has great melting properties and gives a nice color to the dishes.
Herrgårdsost is a traditional cheese made from pasteurized cow's milk. The cheese has been produced since the 18th century in manor houses, hence its English name – Manorhouse cheese. When made from whole milk, it's aged for 6 months, and when it's made from skimmed milk, it's aged for 4 months.
However, some cheeses are aged for up to a year or two. Underneath its waxed rind, the texture is semi-hard, smooth, and supple. The aromas are mild and grassy, while the flavors are milk, sweet, tangy, and nutty. It's recommended to serve Herrgårdsost with crackers or crusty bread and use it in salads or melt it in sandwiches.
Hushållsost is a cylindrical, creamy, semi-hard, traditional cheese made from cows' whole milk on Swedish farms, literally translated as 'household cheese'. Consistent to its name, it is the most popular cheese in Sweden, with 15,000 tons of it consumed every year.
It has small holes dispersed throughout its body, slices easily and has great melting properties. Hushållsost cheese weighs between one and two kilograms, gets wrapped in a plastic casing and is then matured for sixty days and develops a mild, yet sour flavor.
Ädelost is a Swedish blue cheese that was originally created as an alternative to the imported French blue cheeses. The cheese is made from cow's milk and it ages for 8-12 weeks. It has a thin, pale rind that's dusted with specks of grey, white, and blue mold.
The interior is creamy in texture and pale in color, scattered with blue-grey pockets and broken veins. The flavors are sharp, spicy, salty, and tangy. Ädelost is usually crumbled over salads or used as a table cheese, but it can also be combined with balsamic vinegar and olive oil to create a piquant salad dressing.
Wrångebäck or Wrångebäcksost is the oldest registered cheese brand in Sweden, dating back to 1889. It’s produced in the region along the western shore of Lake Vättern, called Guldkroken. The cheese is made from thermized full-fat cow’s milk and it’s left to age for at least nine months before consumption.
Every wheel has the imprint bearing its name, and until 1961 the rind was waxed, but nowadays it's washed in salt water. Underneath the rind, the texture is semi-hard, compact, firm, and creamy, with occasional crystals and eyes. The cheese is melty on the palate.
Pair with
Almnäs Tegel is a Swedish cheese hailing from Västra Götaland. The cheese is made from raw cow's milk, and it's usually left to age from 18 to 30 months. Underneath its washed rind that sometimes smells like pineapple or orange, the texture is hard, dense, and smooth.
The aromas are sweet and fruity, and the flavors are nutty and fruity with hints of butterscotch. This cheese has been influenced by the handmade bricks which have been produced in a local brick factory since the 18th century, each of them bearing a child's footprint, and that's also the case with the rind of Almnäs Tegel.
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Best Swedish Cheese Producers
Almnäs Bruk AB is a Swedish cheese producer located in Hjo, at the shores of Lake Vättern. Founded in 1225, the estate has a long history of dairy production. Almnäs Bruk AB is particularly known for producing "Wrångebäck" cheese, a hard cheese which is one of Sweden's oldest cheese recipes, aged for at least 14 months.
The company is committed to organic farming practices and produces its cheese using milk from its own herd of cows.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Best Swedish Cheeses
AWARDS
World Cheese Awards - Super Gold
2023
Almnäs Tegel is a distinctive Swedish cheese produced by Almnäs Bruk AB. Named after the traditional brick shape, "Tegel" means "brick" in Swedish, reflecting both its form and the method of imprinting the cheese with a pattern reminiscent of a brick wall.
This semi-hard cheese is made using organic cow’s milk from the farm’s own herd. Aged for a minimum of 14 months, Almnäs Tegel develops a rich, complex flavor with nutty and slightly sweet undertones. The cheese is notable for its large size, traditionally weighing around 12 kilograms per block.
AWARDS
World Cheese Awards - Super Gold
2021
AWARDS
Concours International de Lyon - Gold
2025
AWARDS
World Cheese Awards - Gold
2023
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