What Type Of Cheese Is Babybel Original Anyway?

For cheese-obsessed snackers, Babybel is the best there is. Sure, there's string cheese, pre-packed cheese and cracker combos, and cheese sticks, but there's just something about unwrapping that bright red waxy Babybel coating that sparks joy. How many food products can we say are just as fun to open as they are to eat? While the company has been around since 1952, the miniature wax-wrapped discs first hit shelves in 1977. So Gen X through millennials have fond memories of breaking open a mini Babybel cheese wheel at snack time. The French brand has nostalgia on its side, but it's still converting new generations over to team Babybel, even if it doesn't sit among the top-rated French cheeses of all time.

Babybel original is a semi-soft cheese with a delicate, nutty flavor that's reminiscent of many mild cheeses, but the supple creaminess with a bit of added bounce to the texture is hard to pinpoint. Let's find out what kind of cheese Babybel original actually is.

Despite being a French brand, Babybel is inspired by Edam, a cheese from the Netherlands. Edam, similar to its fellow Dutch cousin Gouda, is nutty and salty with a balanced body. A tasting test would prove the similarities between Edam and the mini wax-wrapped cheese wheels, signature red coating and all, but the key term here, used on the Babybel website, is "Edam-style."

Given the perfectly round shape, it wouldn't be out of pocket to suspect that Babybel is a processed cheese product like American cheese, but it is confirmed to be 100% real cheese made with just four ingredients, the main one being pasteurized milk. It doesn't contain the emusifiers that characterize American cheese slices. While Babybel original certainly falls into the Edam family, sharing the same tasting notes and exterior, its ingredients slightly differ. Aside from the reshaping and wax-wrapping, Babybel is produced in the same traditional manner as Edam, just free of animal rennet. Babybel can be enjoyed by lacto-vegetarian cheese-lovers as it uses vegetarian rennet, a microbial enzyme to be technical. The only other ingredients are salt and lactic ferments.

Babybel may be advertised as an Edam-style semi-hard cheese, but its smooth texture veers more on the softer side. It shares the same creamy consistency with small holes throughout giving it that airy bite, but with a bit of a lighter finish than traditional Edam. Babybel is widely available, but just in case you have a craving and can't get out, it's sold online where you can also buy a variety pack containing original Edam-style Babybels, plus Monterey Jack versions and cheddar ones, too.