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Cheese Guides

The cheeses our customers actually make.

Fresh Latin American cheese is where the Bixa family started. These guides document each cheese properly: origin, milk, texture, flavour, process and the coagulation it depends on.

Fresh Latin American

Queso Blanco

Queso blanco is a broad family of fresh white cheeses eaten young rather than aged. It is mild, firm enough to slice or crumble, and widely used across Latin America both fresh and in cooking.

Latin America; the term is used across many countries with local variations
Venezuelan

Queso Llanero

Queso llanero is a firm, dry, distinctly salty white cheese from the Venezuelan llanos. Its dryness and salt level historically allowed it to keep in a hot climate, and it remains an everyday cooking and table cheese.

Venezuela — the llanos (plains)

Queso Fresco

Queso fresco is a soft, moist, crumbly fresh cheese eaten within days of making. It is mild and lightly salted, and it crumbles over food rather than melting.

Latin America, with country-by-country variation
Venezuelan

Queso de Mano

Queso de mano is a soft, pliable Venezuelan cheese shaped by hand into flat rounds. It is mild and moist, traditionally eaten very fresh, often in arepas.

Venezuela
Venezuelan

Queso Guayanés

Queso guayanés is a soft, moist, mild fresh cheese from the Guayana region of Venezuela, typically formed in layers and eaten very fresh — often with arepas or cachapas.

Venezuela — Guayana region

Pasta filata

Mozzarella

Mozzarella is a pasta filata cheese: the curd is acidified, then heated and stretched until smooth and elastic. Getting the stretch right depends on hitting a fairly narrow pH window.

Italy; now made worldwide

Brined

Halloumi

Halloumi is a semi-hard brined cheese, traditionally from Cyprus, known for holding its shape when grilled or fried. The curd is cooked in whey, then brined.

Cyprus

Semi-hard

Gouda

Gouda is a semi-hard Dutch cheese made with a washed curd, which removes some lactose and gives its characteristic mellow, sweet character. It is pressed, brined and ripened.

Netherlands

Hard

Cheddar

Cheddar is a hard cheese defined by cheddaring: the drained curd is allowed to knit, then cut, stacked and turned before being milled and salted. It is pressed and aged from months to years.

England

Fresh

Fresh Farmer's Cheese

Fresh farmer's cheese is a simple, mild fresh cheese made by setting milk, draining the curd and lightly salting it. It is eaten within days and is a common first cheese for new cheesemakers.

Made in many traditions worldwide