Cheese Cave vs. Cheese Cellar vs. Refrigerator: What’s the Difference?

Walk into a cheese shop and you'll see "cave-aged," "cellar-aged" and plenty of cheeses with no aging story at all. Here's what those words actually mean.

The underground cheese cave

A true cheese cave is dug into the earth, or carved from natural rock. The surrounding ground keeps it at a steady cool temperature all year and naturally humid. It's how cheese was aged for centuries in Europe, and it's still the gold standard.

Pros: steady conditions with little equipment, slow and even ripening, great natural rinds. Cons: expensive and hard to build, which is why so few exist in the United States.

The cheese cellar

A cellar is a basement or a purpose-built aging room. Many outstanding American cheeses are cellar-aged. Temperature and humidity are controlled with equipment, and a well-run cellar can come very close to cave conditions.

Pros: precise control, can be built almost anywhere. Cons: depends on machinery, which has to work against the outside climate.

The walk-in cooler or refrigerator

Fine for fresh cheeses like mozzarella, curds and feta, and for storing finished cheese. For long aging, though, coolers are usually too cold and too dry, so cheese can age slowly and unevenly or dry out at the rind.

Side by side

A real cheese cave in Texas

Texas summers make cave aging especially valuable: a few feet underground, the ground stays cool even when it's 105°F outside. That's why Brazos Valley Cheese, now Heritage Cheese Company, dug a cave seventeen feet below Halbert Lane in Waco. See inside our cheese cave, or read how artisan cheese is made.

Call (254) 723-4777 for pricing and to order cave-aged cheese, shipped anywhere in the U.S.