Grocery "artisan" cheese is usually a factory wheel with a rustic label. The real thing comes from small creameries — often a single farm with its own animals — and a lot of them now ship cold, straight to your door. The makers below are among the best in the country, and a couple are working farmsteads where the cows are visible from the make room. Here's where to order them.
Published June 2026 · Updated 29 Jun 2026
Jasper Hill is one of the most respected names in American cheese — a Vermont farmstead with its own underground aging cellars, where they ripen both their own wheels and cheeses from other small makers. The results (the Bayley Hazen Blue, the Harbison) are world-class and regularly hold their own against the best of Europe. If you want to taste the top of what American cheese can do, start here.
Why it's worth findingCave-aging living farmstead wheels is slow work that depends on the specific farm and cellar. That's the opposite of anything a warehouse can stock.
See it at Jasper Hill →von Trapp is a third-generation Vermont farmstead making certified-organic, raw-milk alpine-style cheese from pasture-grazed cows on regenerative land — the herd is genuinely visible from where the cheese is made. It's the ethics standout of the group: organic, raw-milk, and farm-based in the fullest sense. The Oma, a washed-rind, is the one to try first.
Why it's worth findingA single organic farm making raw-milk cheese from its own herd is about as far from a commodity supply chain as food gets. The farm is the product.
See it at von Trapp →Cowgirl Creamery helped define West Coast artisan cheese — organic, soft-ripened cheeses like the Mt Tam and Red Hawk that are benchmarks of the style. They ship nationwide and have spent decades treating dairy as something to do thoughtfully rather than cheaply. A great pick when you want soft, bloomy, special-occasion cheese with a real point of view.
Why it's worth findingSoft-ripened organic cheese is perishable, careful, reputation-driven work. The name on it is the whole guarantee, and that doesn't survive a generic listing.
See it at Cowgirl Creamery →Marcoot is a seventh-generation family Jersey-cow farmstead in Illinois, cave-aging their cheeses and working with A2/A2 milk that's easier on a lot of stomachs. It's the heartland family-farm pick — small, multi-generational, doing the whole thing themselves from the herd up. A genuinely lovely operation to support, and the cheese earns its place on its own.
Why it's worth findingSeven generations on one farm making cave-aged cheese from their own herd is a way of life, not a product line. It was never built for a big platform.
See it at Marcoot →Saxelby is a small New York monger that has spent years championing American farmstead cheese specifically, curating from small creameries around the country and shipping nationwide. Think of it as the expert who's already done the hunting for you: if you don't know where to start, a Saxelby selection is a guided tour of the best small makers in the country.
Why it's worth findingA monger's whole value is the human taste and the relationships behind the selection — exactly the thing a marketplace strips out.
See it at Saxelby →Artisan means the cheese is made in small batches largely by hand, but the word is unregulated, which is why grocery "artisan" wheels are often factory-made. Farmstead is stricter: it means the cheese is made on the same farm that raises the animals whose milk it uses, so the herd is genuinely part of the product. Several makers here are true farmsteads where the animals are visible from the make room.
Raw-milk cheese is legal to sell in the US when it has been aged at least 60 days, which is why so much traditional cheese falls in that aged category. Skipping pasteurization preserves the native bacteria and enzymes in the milk, giving raw-milk cheese more complex, place-specific flavor. If you are pregnant or immune-compromised, ask a cheesemonger, since soft fresh cheeses are the ones to be cautious with.
Keep it in the warmest part of the fridge, ideally a drawer, wrapped in cheese paper or loosely in wax paper rather than tight plastic, which suffocates a living rind and traps moisture. Re-wrap in fresh paper each time you cut it. A little surface mold on a hard aged cheese can be trimmed away; discard soft cheeses that mold unexpectedly.
Take cheese out of the fridge about an hour before serving so it comes to room temperature — cold mutes aroma and flavor, and a good wheel tastes noticeably better warmed to the room. Serve a range of styles, a bloomy, an aged, a blue, and cut each cheese with its own knife so flavors don't cross. If you are unsure where to start, an assembled selection from a monger is the easiest way to taste breadth.
Some links on this page earn us a commission. It never affects who makes a list or what order they're in — placement is not for sale, and no maker has ever been asked for money.
Some "see it at…" links are affiliate links — if you buy through one, 5best2buy may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never costs the creamery anything, and it never decides who makes the list. The list is the list.
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