Canada's best cheeses to buy for your party

Firm and hard cheeses
Most cheeses from the British, Dutch and Swiss traditions — from which many Canadian cheeses are derived — are in this category. Firm and hard cheeses are aged for long periods to remove much of the moisture or are made from cooked and pressed curds. They can be sliced thinly, cut into cubes or broken up for serving.

Supermarket picks
• Cheddar: Medium is Canada's best-loved cheese, but for your plate, select a well-aged Cheddar — from three to even nine years — or a flavoured one, such as Aged Port Cheddar (Fromagerie Albert Perron, Que.), which has streaks of sweet and fragrant port.
• Gouda: Holland's famous cheese, reproduced in Canada by numerous Dutch settlers; traditionally sold in mild, medium, aged and extra-old, as well as flavoured, varieties; local producers include That Dutchman's Farm in Nova Scotia, Cheeselady's Gouda Cheese in Prince Edward Island, Thunder Oak Cheese Farm in Ontario, Sylvan Star Cheese and Eyot Creek Farm in Alberta, and Natural Pastures Cheese in B.C.
• Provolone: Distinctively shaped cheese strung and hung to age; mild when young, but when aged, it has a more pronounced flavour and dry texture; Provolone Sette Fette (National Cheese, Ont.) is an award-winning example.
• Swiss: Holey Canadian version of Swiss Emmenthal; usually sold very young and mild; with age, it develops nutty flavour with slight bite.

Specialty cheeses
• Verdelait Cumin Seed (Natural Pastures Cheese, B.C.): Lemony Dutch-style cheese flecked with cumin seeds.
• Leoni-Grana (Alta.): Alberta's grainy, crumbly Italian-style grana-type cheese.
• Wabassi (La Fromagerie du Petit Train du Nord, Que.): Slightly sharp, with lingering milky flavour.

Blue cheeses
Cheeses in this group have been injected with — or, more rarely, naturally affected by — moulds, creating tasty blue striations.

Supermarket picks
• Borgonzola (Quality Cheese, Ont.): Mild and buttery; a soft blue cheese for blue-cheese debutants.
• Bleubry (Cayer-Saputo, Que.): Slightly salty, with a mild tang; more Brie than blue in flavour but firmer than Brie.

Specialty cheeses
• Bleu Bénédictin (Abbaye St-Benoît-du-Lac, Que.): Winner of many awards; slightly crumbly with light rind; sweet and salty, with a lingering taste.
• Bleu Ermite: (Abbaye St-Benoît-du-Lac, Que.): From the same monastery as Bleu Bénédictin; a rindless blue cheese, with fairly sharp, mouth-filling flavour.
• Le Ciel de Charlevoix (La Maison d'Affinage Maurice Dufour, Que.): Beneath the fairly thick yet mildly flavoured rind is a semisoft, voluptuous, cream-colour interior with occasional blue veining; pleasant, creamy sour-milk flavour.

Goat and sheep cheeses
Goat's and ewe's milk are made into all types of cheeses: soft, semisoft, firm and hard, and blue. Goat's milk is used to produce many familiar cheeses originally made from cow's milk, such as Cheddar, Gouda, Brie and mozzarella. Look for them in supermarket coolers along with fresh goat cheese and feta. Goat and sheep cheeses are whiter than cow's milk cheese.

Supermarket picks
• Fresh Goat Cheese: Unaged and almost pure white, it ranges from very soft and spreadable to firmer, slightly drier versions; made in several provinces; in British Columbia, look for David Wood's Goat Cheese, beautifully packaged with edible flowers; for a flavoured cheese from the East, try Lands End Farm's (Nfld.) Garlic/Pepper Chevre Round.
• Canadian Feta: A brined goat's milk (sometimes cow's or mixed milk) cheese, feta originated in Greece. Salty, with bright sharpness and dry texture.
• Aged Goat Cheese: French-style goat cheese; often fashioned in a wide log and aged to give it a moist crust (sometimes rolled in vegetable ash) and shallow interior with a slightly chalky centre; has more complex flavour than fresh cheese; there are examples nationwide, several in Quebec.

Specialty cheeses
• Crottin (Natricia Dairy, Alta.): A small, roughly shaped round with softly wrinkled ivory rind; slightly funky, smooth interior.
• St. Maure (Natricia Dairy, Alta.): Cylindrical, with or without vegetable-ash covering; mellow yet very developed taste with agreeable nuttiness and runny layer between very soft rind and drier centre.
• Pyramide (Fromages Chaput, Que.; Natricia Dairy, Alta.): Pyramid-shaped, with sweet, edible dry rind and fresh, slightly sharp goaty taste when young; ages to drier, full-flavoured complexity.
• Brie Caprine (Natricia Dairy, Alta.): Mild, semisoft Brie-like goat cheese; an introductory-level aged goat cheese.
• Mountain Meadow Brie (Mountain Meadow Sheep Dairy Products, B.C.): Mild, fairly soft ewe's milk Brie-type cheese; rich and satisfying.
• Gracilosa (Portuguese Cheese Company, Ont.): Firm and mild, with slightly sweet taste.
• La Monarque (Fromagerie la Petite Cornue, Que.): Firm sheep cheese with hard rind; mild yet rich, buttery flavour, with agreeable tartness.