Best cheese subscriptions and delivery boxes 2024

Best cheese subscriptions and clubs at a glance

• Best cheese subscription for wow factor: Paxton & Whitfield, from £120 for 3 months
• Best value cheese subscription: Pong Cheese, from £24 per month
• Best cheese subscription for gifting: The Cheese Society, from £38 a box
• Best cheese delivery for supporting food banks: The Cheese Collective, £36 a month
• Best for discovering new European cheeses: Provisions Cheese Canteen, £32 a month
• Best cheese subscription for people who like surprises: Fine Cheese Company, £36 a box
• Best cheese box for the adventurous: Rennet & Rind, £39.50 a month

Best cheese subscriptions 2024

Paxton & Whitfield’s Cheese Club

• Available from Paxton & Whitfield, from £120 for 3 months

Best cheese delivery for dinner party 'wow factor'

Paxton & Whitfield, the UK’s oldest cheesemonger, has a superb range of expertly curated artisan cheese, fine foods, wines and stylish cheese homewares. It has three shops; its flagship shop on Jermyn Street in Piccadilly, one on Chelsea Green in Chelsea and another in the centre of Bath. It also delivers items all over the UK. The company was founded in 1797, and today, sells its products to lovers of fine cheese, hotels and restaurants.

As a member of the Cheese Club, you'll receive four carefully selected cheeses in peak condition, chosen for the season. The selection is sent by overnight courier leaving on the second Wednesday of each month to arrive on the Thursday.

What’s in the Paxton & Whitfield cheese box:

Tickelmore Goat (250g): a goat's milk cheese made on the Sharpham Estate that overlooks the River Totnes in South Devon. Made by hand using traditional methods, it's matured for at least two months. It has a rich, clean flavour with fresh citrus notes.

Perl Las (250g): Perl Las, which means ‘Blue Pearl’, is a blue cheese made from cow's milk by Carwyn Adams of Caws Cenarth on his family farm near Cardigan in the heart of West Wales. It has deep savoury notes, balanced with the piquancy of the blue.

Herve Vieux Moulin (200g): a washed rind, raw cow’s milk traditional cheese perfect for anyone who loves an Epoisses and Old Groendal. It has an umami flavour with a slight sweet finish and a rich and silky texture. It's the only Belgian cheese with an AOP (Appellation d'origine protégée/Protected designation of origin).

Moreton (250g): a new Tomme-style cheese created by David Jowett of King Stone Dairy in Chedworth. Luxurious, buttery texture cut through with a clean, spritzy acidity. Made from organic cow's milk.

Information included: detailed tasting notes on each of the cheeses, but members of the cheese club can request that fact sheets are emailed to them, to save paper.

Order now:
Paxton & Whitfield (Bronze subscription £120 for three months; Silver £225 for six months; Gold £420 for a year)

Pong Cheese – The Cheese Club

• Available from Pong Cheese, from £24 a month

Best-value cheese subscription

Join the Pong Cheese Club and choose from a delivery of a speciality box (£24 per month) or premium (£32 per month, with one extra cheese). The box includes exciting cheeses from the UK, Europe and around the world. Typically, there are four cheeses in a speciality box (minimum weight 500g), plus a special fifth cheese if you choose a premium box. You can skip, cancel or pause your subscription at any time; go for monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly delivery; and customise your box if you prefer no blue or goat's cheese, or want vegetarian only.

A sample Pong Cheese Club speciality box contains:

Wookey Hole cave-aged cheddar: This award-winning West Country farmhouse cheddar has a nutty, tangy flavour, and is aged for up to three months in Wookey Hole Caves.

P'tit Grey: P'tit Grey is a soft cow’s milk cheese made in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. To obtain its ash-coated rind, the cheese maker rubs the cheeses with vegetable ash.

Roucoulons: Roucoulons is a bloomy rind cow's milk cheese produced by Fromagerie Milleret, also in the Franche-Comté region. It's a soft ripened cheese with a pale, orange-coloured rind. Its pate is ivory-coloured and creamy in texture.

Blue Murder: A soft blue cow's milk cheese that is mould-ripened and meaty, with thick threads of blue running through the creamy, white paste. Made by Highland Fine Cheeses at Blarliath Farm, Scotland.

Available from:
Pong Cheese, from £24 a month

The Cheese Society Subscription Club

• Available from The Cheese Society, from £38

Nestled in the heart of historic Lincoln, The Cheese Society sources its products from small-scale producers across Lincolnshire, the UK and Europe. From tangy blue cheeses, to creamy bries and sharp cheddars, the variety caters to every palate. There is a range of subscription lengths available, from a one-month, one-off, to a subscription for three, four, six or 12 months. The selection changes every month, so you'll get different cheeses each time, and delivery is free.

What is in The Cheese Society subscription box

Each delivery includes four hand-cut, seasonal, artisan cheeses from the UK and the continent. It includes new discoveries; smaller, lesser-known dairies; and traditional favourites, carefully selected by cheese experts. The cheeses are not available for individual purchase on The Cheese Society’s website, giving subscribers a unique experience. Cheesemongers cut, wrap and pack the cheeses fresh to order, and send them out in a gift box with tasting notes and an optional gift message on the date of your choice.

“We select British and continental classics, recent award-winners and lesser-known dairies, so you receive a delicious discovery of cheese in each delivery,” says owner Lucie Nock.

Available from:
The Cheese Society, from £38

The Cheese Collective – The Usual Box

• Available from The Cheese Collective, £36 a month

Best cheese delivery for supporting food banks

The Cheese Collective is partnered with The Trussell Trust, the UK’s largest network of food banks, and for every cheese box purchased, the company will donate a meal to a local food bank. The owners work with a range of award-winning British artisan cheese makers, including Alsop & Walker, High Weald Dairy and Appleby Creamery.

What was in our Cheese Collective The Usual box:

Each box contains a mix of hard, semi-hard, soft and blue cheeses, although customers can customise their box based on their personal preferences, with options for no blue cheese, no goat’s cheese, or vegetarian only. Our box contained the following (each cheese weighed approx. 150-180g)

Sussex camembert: British take on the French classic from Alsop & Walker in Sussex. Creamy in texture with an earthy, mushroomy flavour.
Beauvale: melt-in-the-mouth, lusciously creamy soft blue cheese from the Cropwell Bishop Creamery in Nottingham. A great soft cheese for Stilton fans.
Organic St Giles: semi-soft, buttery-textured cheese from High Weald Dairy in Sussex. Similar in style to French Port Salut with an edible orange rind. Vegetarian.
Duckett’s Caerphilly: a fresh, clean, crumbly cheese made by the Westcombe Dairy in Somerset. It has an earthy, yogurty flavour.
Connage Dunlop: traditional cloth-bound cheese from the Connage Highland Dairy in Inverness, based on a recipe dating back to 1600s. It has a moist, creamy texture and a nutty taste. Vegetarian.

Information included: each cheese comes with a collectable card, describing the cheese, the cheesemaker, its history, flavour profile and awards.

Order now:
The Cheese Collective (£36 a month, free next weekday delivery)

Provisions Cheese Canteen

• Available from Provisions, from £32 per month

Best for discovering fabulous European cheeses

North London-based Provisions imports cheese and wine from small, natural and organic producers, mainly in France and Italy, but also from across Europe. They work with organic/biodynamic and natural winemakers, raw milk cheesemakers and other artisan producers.

The Cheese Canteen subscription box includes five cheeses, weighing a total of 1kg. You can choose the number of months you wish to sign up for: a one-off box costs £32, reducing in price to £28 for a 12 month subscription. You can pause or change your subscription at any time. And you can state your special requirements, such as no goat's cheese or blue cheese.

What was in our Provisions box:

Every month is different, but the box we reviewed was themed Alpine cheese, chosen from across the mountains of Switzerland, France and Italy.

The five cheeses were Morbier from the French Jura, the specialty Monlesi from the Swiss Jura, Ossau Iraty from the French Pyrenees, and Taleggio and Blu Di Nicoletta from the Italian Alps. A stunning – and surprising – selection of cheeses, some of which were new to us.

Information included: Each box comes with a leaflet describing each cheese, its history and flavour profile, plus information about how to store and keep your cheese in tip-top condition.

Order now:
Provisions, from £32 per month

Fine Cheese Company Cheese Subscription

• Available from Fine Cheese Company (from £36 a box)

Best cheese subscription for people who like surprises

This subscription is ideal for cheese lovers who like to expect the unexpected. Every month you’ll receive a different selection of four cheeses, plus crackers, along with tasting notes.

The Fine Cheese Co only offers ‘artisan’ cheeses, some of which may only be bought through them. By ‘artisan’ they mean cheeses made predominantly by small producers using traditional methods, and often making only one cheese and with the milk from their own herd. The company has direct relationships with the cheese-makers (and affineurs), specifying and agreeing on age, condition and flavour profile.

What’s in The Fine Cheese Co box:

Stichelton (270g): creamy and nutty with a pleasing blue tang that is sweet and spicy, this unpasteurised cheese is based on a stilton recipe.
Golden Cross (225g): a sweet, soft and delicately ‘goaty’ and grassy cheese with an ice-cream like texture. The young cheese is rolled in ash, and then matured for a couple of weeks to allow the growth of a natural rind and the development of a more complex flavour. Vegetarian.
Coolea (400g): a gouda-style hard cheese from Ireland with a sweet, honey and toffee flavour that has been likened to butterscotch.
Toast for cheese: Apricots, pistachios and sunflower seeds: thin, light and crisp toast (baked twice like biscotti) and studded with fruits, nuts and seeds.

Information included: A beautifully designed pamphlet with the stories of the cheesemakers and flavour profiles of the cheeses.

Order now:
Fine Cheese Company (from £36 a box, free delivery)

Rennet & Rind Mystery cheese box

• Available from Rennet & Rind (£39.50 a month)

Best cheese box for the adventurous

This box contains some wonderful British classics that you may not have come across before. A mystery box consists of five unique specialist artisan cheeses, aged in the Rennet & Rind maturation room. Enjoy on your own or connect over live video and share your unique cheeseboard experience. World Cheese Awards judge Perry James Wakeman hand-selects each cheese. Many of the products are locally sourced from small independent producers in the Cambridge region to ensure food miles are minimised and local producers and their employees can benefit from their mutual relationship.

What's in the Mystery Cheese box:

Montgomery cheddar (210g): made with unpasteurised milk from Friesian cows on the Montgomery family's 500-year old farm, Montgomery's mature cheddar is aged for 12 months wrapped in Muslin cloth on wooden shelves.
Sussex brie (260g: made by Arthur Alsop and Nic Walker in Sussex, this brie is unctuous and creamy with grassy notes and hints of mushroom. Vegetarian.
Cornish yarg (270g): modern, farmhouse, vegetarian, hard cheese. The natural rind is covered in fresh nettles. Cornish Yarg is a hand-made cheese produced from a traditional 17th Century recipe. Moist but crumbly, it is not unlike caerphilly. Vegetarian.
Sparkenhoe Shropshire blue (230g): lightly laced with blue, this creamy pale orange cheese is made with unpasteurised milk and coloured with annato, showing off the beautiful lacy blue veins.
Berkswell (230g): sweet and nutty with hints of caramel, Berkswell is a hard sheep’s cheese, made in the West Midlands, reminiscent of Spanish manchego or Italian pecorino, with a distinctive shape, like a flattened rugby ball, created by the way it naturally drains in a colander.
1 box wheat wafers

Information included: a sheet of tasting notes, covering the origin, style, cheesemaker and flavour profiles for each cheese, plus advice about storing, tasting and food pairing.

Order now:
Rennet & Rind (£39.50 a month)

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