What Makes Truly Grass Fed Cheese Our Favorite Store-Bought Brand

In days gone by, taste and price seemed to mandate grocery-buying decisions, and rightfully so, given the limited access to deeper details. Today's consumers are a bit more savvy, taking into account many factors when determining which items to bring home. That's why Tasting Table reviewers considered a bevy of nuanced factors choosing our favorite store-bought cheese brand. 

After ranking 15 popular cheese brands for characteristics such as taste, texture, brand variety, and melting superiority, our top spot went to Truly Grass Fed, an Irish farmer-owned co-op sourcing its milk from small family farms in the southern and eastern regions of Ireland. It's telling that the number one ranking went to a Irish butter brand with some of the most earth-conscious sensibilities, exacting food-purity practices, and family farm commitments. The cheese obviously had to be superior in taste — otherwise, who's going to eat it? Fortunately, our top pick knocked it out of the dairy park in that regard. 

Truly Farms produces only a few different products, just grass-fed butter and cheese, and oat milk. The cheese features a limited collection comprised of a Maker's Blend aged cheddar, natural aged cheddar, and natural sharp cheddar, with the latter two available as "wedges" and hand-cut slices. Each of those two were taste-tested by our reviewer, who noted how the selective grass-fed farming and high standards resulted in a "rich, hearty flavor" and "creamy, pleasing texture." 

Many small farmers today aspire to at least one facet of natural or sustainable practices, but Truly Farms embraces them all. We're talking non-GMO and animal welfare certifications, no antibiotics or added rBST growth hormones, regenerative farming practices, 95% grass-fed diets, and free-roam grazing pastures with roughly two acres per cow.

All of that results in better-tasting cheeses as well as higher nutrition value in the milk. As explained by the company, grass-fed milk contains a higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids and about twice the amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which increases immune function and potentially reduces body fat. Grass-fed milk also harbors beneficial amounts of beta carotene.

The ingredient list for the two primary Truly Grass Fed cheeses is short and simple, with no fillers or additives — just pasteurized milk, salt, cheese cultures, and enzymes. The natural aged cheddar ages six months, while the natural sharp cheddar takes double the time, resulting in bolder flavor. The Maker's Blend aged cheddar cheese, not included in our 15 popular cheese rankings, sits apart as a more refined choice, aging for nine months and carrying slightly different ingredients, namely a specified "lactic starter" culture and a vegetarian rennet, rather than an animal-derived one. It's described as have similar creamy consistency as the others but with nutty overtones, notes of Parmesan, and tinges of salt crystallization.