We Tried 5 Cheese Subscription Boxes to Find the Best for Date Night and Beyond

It seems like everything is subscription-based these days. Movies, music, razors, beauty products, newsletters, language learning apps run by passive-aggressive green owls.

That said, we’ve conceded that some subscriptions, particularly in the food realm, are pretty darn convenient (and tasty): a box of prime meat cuts, a seafood subscription, or a grocery box allows us to bypass the crowded supermarket after work. One of the best, though, has to be a subscription to cheese, which provides a fun way to try different, new-to-you cheeses (all without hovering over a cheese counter before committing to the same wedge of cheddar you always go for).

We took one for the team and tried five different cheese subscription boxes, assessing how they arrived at our doors and the variety and quality of the selected cheeses.

Our Favorite Cheese Subscription Boxes, at a Glance

The Best Overall Cheese Subscription

Murray’s Cheese Cheese Explorer's Club

View on Murrayscheese.com

This three-month subscription comes with three to four different cheeses, all of which are neatly wrapped and arrived chilled and in good condition. They offer a nice medley of styles and sometimes add in a fun pairing, like this Kuze Fuku & Sons Yuzu Fruit Spread.

The Best Cheese Subscription for Date Nights

Curdbox

View on Curdbox.com

There's cheese, obviously, but Curdbox also includes three food pairings to create your own little charcuterie board. It's not only tasty, but it's also a great spread for munching while reminiscing on your first date or watching a cute movie together.

The Best Cheese Subscription for Armchair Travel

iGourmet International Cheese Subscription - 3 Months

View on IGourmet

Want to travel via morsels of cheese? This box takes you on a journey all from the comfort of your home, with a medley of dairy delights from a single locale. The box also includes a newsletter so you can lunch and learn.

The Best Single-Producer Cheese Subscription

Jasper Hill Farm Cheese Club

View on Jasperhillfarm.com

Jasper Hill in Vermont makes some of the best cheeses we've had, so having access to a variety of their products each month is pretty dang awesome. Each box not only contains sizeable wedges and chunks of cheese, but also food pairings and serving doodads, like a cheese knife. This would make a fabulous gift.

The Best Small-Batch Cheese Subscription

Cheese Month Club The Rare Cheese Club

View on Cheesemonthclub.com

This rare cheese subscription is pretty self-explanatory: You get a box of cheeses that you might not normally find in your average Whole Foods. Many are from small-batch producers and are named after the place they come from (like Comté from Comté)—it's like going straight to the source without having to lift a finger (okay, you will need to press "buy").

What We Learned

Keep an Open Mind

So maybe we didn’t “learn” this rather obvious point, but we’ll gently remind you that the thing with food subscription boxes—of any kind, really—is that you run the risk of not loving all of the contents all of the time. Cheese boxes are an effective way to surprise yourself each month (or surprise someone else with a lovely gift), but if you detest, let’s say, blue cheese, it’s worth being aware that your subscription might include a wedge of Stilton or Roquefort from time to time. You might also end up with a nice wedge of Parmesan that won’t seem as thrilling when you make a point of always keeping a hunk of it in your fridge. That said, the fun is in the surprise, and we were delighted by all of the cheeses we received in our boxes, especially the 2 Sisters Isabella Gouda in our Murray’s Cheesemonger’s Picks Box—it was nutty, with an almost caramelized flavor and chunks of crystals, and we couldn’t stop eating it. 

Packaging Was Important

Cheese is at its best when stored at stable temperatures and wrapped so it can breathe. Putting cheese in a box to hand off to a delivery service is not ideal—but it shouldn’t be a tragedy, either.

Cheese subscription boxes should be well-packaged so that each piece arrives fresh and intact and hasn’t fallen victim to heat, ice, snow, hail...you get the idea. A one-off instance of a melted ice pack in the middle of a summer heatwave is one thing (as we sadly experienced with the Jasper Hill Cheese Club this past year), but if your subscription box regularly reeks of overripe cheese before you’ve unwrapped anything, that’s not exactly desirable.

Food Pairings Were Fun

Some cheese boxes include nothing but cheese—which is totally fine! But we do love a fun pairing; maybe a nice jam, some zesty olives, or perhaps a few artisan crackers. These extras can make a cheese subscription box feel more like a surprise (or a complete meal, we won't judge), with the bonus of inspiring future cheeseboards.

We liked the pairings and information included in the iGourmet International Cheese Box, which included three kinds of Manchego, as well as membrillo (quince paste) and olives; it was the perfect array of sweet, salty, and nutty.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Cheese Subscription Box

A great cheese subscription box offers a nice variety (three to four pieces of cheese is the average count), and the cheeses should be carefully packaged and suffer from neither the sweltering of summer nor the chill of winter.  We also liked boxes that included a bit about the cheese and what it pairs nicely with. 

And we’ll also just say it now: Cheese subscriptions aren’t cheap—nor should they be! You’re receiving artisan cheeses that have been produced with care from the milk of living creatures, hand-selected for their pleasing characteristics, wrapped nicely, and delivered to your home.

The Best Cheese Subscription Boxes

The Best Overall Cheese Subscription

Murray’s Cheese Cheese Explorer's Club

View on Murrayscheese.com

What we liked: Murray’s offers a few different cheese subscription options (including a mac and cheese club, which we’re very on board with), but the box we tried comes with three to four different cheeses. Our box arrived in excellent condition (everything was sufficiently chilled), and offered a variety of sharp and gooey selections. Associate commerce editor Grace Kelly says the Murray’s cheese box is perfect for creating a cheeseboard, or just “nibbling greedily from the fridge in the forsaken hours of the morning.”  

What we didn’t: We wish there was a one-month subscription option to make the box more accessible to budget-conscious cheese lovers. It would also be great if more cheeses were included—Murray’s picks are just so delicious.

Key Specs

• Box includes: 3 to 4 cheeses
• Frequency: Monthly (3, 6, or 12 months subscriptions available)
• Good to know: Murray’s has five cheese clubs to choose from.

The Best Cheese Subscription for Date Nights

Curdbox Cheese Subscription Box

View on Curdbox.com

What we liked: Curdbox makes it easy to set up a cute date night without running from one fancy grocery store to the next. Not only does each box include three artisan cheeses, but it also comes with three specialty food items (hello crackers and membrillo), an info card with other pairing suggestions, an in-depth blog post, a Curdcast podcast episode, and a curated Spotify playlist to set the mood (phew!). Grace called it a “tasty setup” that she and her husband happily munched their way through in one go. 

What we didn’t: It’s fun and convenient, but at $75 per month, you could also buy yourself a date-night dinner out. 

Key Specs

• Box includes: 3 cheeses, 3 food pairings, and a bunch of info (including a podcast episode and playlist)
• Frequency: Monthly (3, 6, or 12 months subscriptions available)
• Good to know: You can pay as you go month to month, or pay in advance for three, six, or twelve months. It’s also possible to skip a month or two if you’re going to be out of town or otherwise need a break.

The Best Cheese Subscription for the Armchair Traveler

iGourmet International Cheese Subscription - 3 Months

View on IGourmet

What we liked: Each International Cheese Box highlights a different country. Our sample box focused on Spain, and we tried a lovely trio of Manchego with some olives and quince paste. The included newsletter was helpful, shedding light on how different this one style of cheese can be and explaining how to best sample the cheeses. This is a fun subscription box if you want to broaden your cheese horizons, locale by locale.

What we didn’t: If you need to pause your subscription, you have to email or call rather than just making the change in your iGourmet account. It's also quite pricey.

Key Specs

• Box includes: 3 to 4 cheeses, 2 pairing accompaniments
• Frequency: Monthly (3, 6, or 12 months subscriptions available)
• Good to know: You can prepay for 3, 6, or 12 months, otherwise the monthly subscription can be canceled anytime. They also offer a Connoisseur's Subscription.

The Best Single-Producer Cheese Subscription

Jasper Hill Cheese Club

View on Jasperhillfarm.com

What we liked: We love Jasper Hill cheese; it’s true artisan cheese production happening in the beautiful Vermont countryside, and we love to support independent producers. This is the priciest cheese subscription box on our list, but each box comes with a few cheeses and fun surprises, like food pairings or cheese tools. This maybe isn’t a 12-month subscription situation, but a couple of times a year as a treat or a gift? Definitely. 

What we didn’t: We might stick to ordering during the winter months—the box we received in the summertime arrived at room temperature, with the ice packs long melted and the distinct (and a little too ripe) aroma of cheese wafting from the box. 

Key Specs

• Box includes: At least 3 cheeses with pairings, cheese tools, or other Jasper Hill merch.
• Frequency: Monthly
• Good to know: You subscribe for multiple months by increasing the quantity; you won’t get multiples of the same box in the same month.

The Best Small-Batch Cheese Subscription

Cheese Month Club The Rare Cheese Club

View on Cheesemonthclub.com

What we liked: Cheese of the Month Club offers two subscriptions, but the one we're digging is the Rare Cheese Club. The folks behind it are tasked with sourcing, small-batch cheeses from around the world—not just cheeses that are in the “style” of Comté or Paski Sir, but ones that are actually from these areas. This is a really fun box to try just because, or if you’re looking for inspiration for your next charcuterie board—or even your next vacation.

What we didn’t: We understand wanting to highlight the special cheeses but throwing in a little something to serve as a pairing would be a nice touch.

Key Specs

• Box includes: 3 cheeses, monthly newsletter
• Frequency: Monthly
• Good to know: You can see recently featured rare cheeses on the website—great for getting an idea of what to expect.

FAQs

What kinds of cheeses are included in cheese subscription boxes?

This one is tricky to answer—it can vary widely, which is often exactly why people subscribe to cheese boxes. You can look for boxes with specific types of cheeses (the Murray’s Cheese mac and cheese box, for example, where each cheese will have a certain meltiness and flavor profile suited to excellent mac), but we prefer to let ourselves be surprised and embrace the opportunity to try something new. 

What is the price range for cheese subscription boxes?

Expect to spend between $50 and $75 per month for cheese subscriptions, on average—though some cheese subscriptions are much pricier.

Why We’re the Experts 

• Summer Rylander is a freelancer from Nuremberg, Germany. 
• She has written multiple stories for Serious Eats, including a review of pasta drying racks and a piece about how to choose between ceramic and nonstick skillets. 
• We taste-tested various cheese boxes in our examination of mail-order food subscriptions. We examined how they arrived (inspecting the packaging and noting if any cheese was overly fragrant), tasted the cheeses, and noted if the box provided detailed information and other goodies.