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Alexandra Jones is a writer and recovering cheesemonger based in Philadelphia. Her work on food, agriculture, social justice, and sustainability has appeared in outlets like USA Today, Food & Wine, Atlas Obscura, Civil Eats, The Counter, Audubon, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Modern Farmer. She’s the author of Stuff Every Cheese Lover Should Know, a pocket guide to cheese from Quirk Books.
culture’s 2025 Annual List of the Best Award-winning Cheeses
At culture, we eat a lot of cheese—funky cheeses, flavored cheeses, ones with bloomy rinds and ones sans rinds, cheeses made of several animal milks, cheeses made from plants, so on. We also attend national and international competitions each year alongside makers and folks in the biz so that we can add award-winning cheeses to […]
Making Cheese in Appalachia: Firefly Farms Reflects on a 20-Year Journey
For founders Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet, building a cheese business in western Maryland has always been about the journey, not the destination
Chef’s Dish: At Mish Mish, Fried Armenian String Cheese Sets the Fun, Casual Vibe
The fried Armenian string cheese has become one of the most popular dishes on Mish Mish’s menu, a flagship small plate that sums up Tewfik’s vision: easy, simple, fun.
Breeding Better Cheese
Enterprising dairies blend the latest tech and age-old practices to raise healthier animals, strengthen farms, and produce top-quality milk
Best Cheeses 2022: Sheep’s Milk
Photo by Nina Gallant | Styled by Kendra Smith CROZIER BLUE (pictured above)J&L Grubb Ltd. / Cashel Blue | Fethard, Ireland This rich, sweet wheel gets its name from St. Patrick’s Crozier, a silver relic in the shape of a shepherd’s crook said to be carried by the saint—a fitting name for a sheep’s milk […]
Best Cheeses 2022: Buffalo Milk
Photo by Nina Gallant | Styled by Kendra Smith BUFFALO MILK BURRATA (pictured above)Deca & Otto | Colombia Small-scale farmers have been raising water buffalo in Colombia’s lush northern prairies for generations,and Deca and Otto works with producers raising 100 percent grass-fed herds to produce their line of fresh cheese, yogurt, and dulce de leche. […]
