As most of you may know, I sell British cheese here in CH. I also spend one weekend a month in the Netherlands and I'm thinking of bringing in some Dutch cheese for Christmas.

The reason I haven't done it before is that a lot of Dutch cheese is quite similar to Swiss cheese - same shape, similar textures, both made in similar ways so there isn't the differentiation that I enjoy with British cheese which is very different.

Question is, though for the Dutch here, I'm sure I can sell this to the locals but would there be a demand for a Christmas selection for Dutch expats? This won't be supermarket Gouda and similar, but very special farm cheeses - including a 3 year old hard cheese, a soft sheep and a blue goat. I'm thinking of offering a Kg tasting pack of 4 or 5 cheeses for around 40 - 50.00 chufs, pick up from my shop in Zürich or posted throughout the country. And what other products would you suggest to go with it? - mustard, crackers etc.....

I'll be there this weekend and will be seeing a cheese supplier to make a selection.

Thanks for your feedback!

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Mike

Monger of fine British Cheeses

If you buy cheese from the Beemster or Waerder cheese, I´ll be there! And if you want I´d happily put an advert out on Facebook for the dutchies in Switzerland.

Not Dutch myself, but my mother was and so grew up in a partly Dutch environment.

I wouldn't necessarily agree that Dutch cheeses are similar to Swiss ones. Many Dutch cheeses use spices and things that you wouldn't find in cheeses here. Cummin is best known but has maybe become a bit of a cliche. There has also been a resurgence of interest in regional cheeses and people like Beemster have been very clever with the marketing. Beemster is a little over hyped in my view but still a welcome break to the so-boring Edams and things.

With christmas coming up, other products that might find grateful buyers include sweet stuff such as spekulaas and stroopwaffels. You may get them here too, but the Dutch ones are a bit different and, to me at least beacuse of the childhood memories, special.

Personally not keen on the sweet stuff. And if I have an urge I can go to the Dutch shop in Adliswil.

But some really nice cheeses (and yes, I also think the taste is quite different), count me in!

PS: Cheese with sambal (spicy) or nettles is also very nice

Grumpygrapefruit seriously underestimates our greediness

If I want Dutch cheese, I'll buy it in Holland when I am there. When I have to pay a premium price for it, I prefer to eat some different cheese as the taste is not that special.

Actually flying back home today and will definitely buy a kilo of my favourite cheese tomorrow to take back here

There is also a Dutch guy from Norway having a cheese stand with Dutch cheeses at the Christmas market in Zürich (At least over the last years) But tbh I have no clue what he all sells.

In my experience most Dutch don't really miss the special cheeses, but they miss their slices of the normal ones on bread during breakfast (I really have found no Swiss cheese that I like on bread, but can easily get the Dutch ones in Germany or postal order), I even do think a lot of Dutch don't like most of those small special cheeses but some do, and surely they are willing to pay for it.

Best place to ask for interest among the Dutch would be the FB group "Nederlanders in Switzerland" If needed I can invite you to it. (Just try to type Dutch or expect a shitstorm from some, but I can translate for you if wanted)

As for what to do along, that fully depends on the cheeses you include, some need to be nibbled without anything, others demand some Dutch mustard, others a cracker.

And the Netherlands is not famous for its special cheeses, it's famous for it's normal cheese and the amount of it we use.

I agree that traditional Dutch cheese is quite similar to Swiss varieties. However, the Dutch tend to be more experimental than the Swiss... so you can get loads of cheese with added ingredients that would be some sacrilege for any Swiss farmer. Id bet that the people who buy at Grumpies booth imported English cheese would however be very open for it.


Last time I was in NL I got some green pesto cheese, some coconut cheese and I believe some sambal or chili variety...


https://cheeseshop.henriwillig.com/e...027.1536923512

I had a wasabi cheese once.

My mate the Dutch Cheeseman sells this at the Bellevue Xmas market, even he says it's not very good (being very polite) but some people like gimmicks like this . I won't be selling anything like that!

Thanks everyone, all good points, wills see what I can find over the weekend!

As per the link I shared... try henri willig. And I mean this literally> they got several pretty touristic shops in Amsterdam where you can try your heart out. All calculated into the price of the not so cheap products...

Were up for it! If we go home we bring some local farm cheese or very old Gouda, but a preselection of something out of the ordinary would get two thumbs up for christmas! Leave the weirdly spiced ones for the tourists though

But the tourists in the Netherlands and grumpy's customers in Switzerland are - basically the same

Would love some proper aged Beemster cheese - can this be found en Suisse?

Have never seen it here, Edeka (Germany) does have it once in a while

There's almost no "proper" Dutch cheese in this country which is why I was looking at bringing some in. Unfortunately I didn't get round to it for Christmas, I was too swamped in coping with my normal selection, but it's still on my list of things to do.

Please let us know when you have it? I´ll be there!

Still, as a dutchie, I teally like the blocks of Gouda sold here at the lidl...

I agree. Best I have found here.

Actually, there is a small cheese store down the road that has a large selection of various Dutch cheeses, mainly nicely aged ones. (one of the owners is Dutch)

https://www.formaggiusto.ch/index.php/chi-siamo

Tom