These soft white cows' milk cheeses have a white, almost downy surface and a creamy interior. Our Bries and Camemberts can be found in this category.

Natural rind cheeses are produced using a specific type of starter culture. This crucial element contributes to the maturing process and to the development of a fine crust. The maturing process starts in special humid and ventilated rooms, where the cheese rests for 10 days. The cheese is then transferred to a cellar or cold room, where it will age and become soft. The heart of the cheese will gradually become creamier.

These cheeses are identified by their yellowish colour and firm texture. Depending on the length of the maturing process, the taste and aroma can span from very mild to aromatic and sharp flavours. Certain hard cheeses such as Emmental have a mild taste, whereas Comté or Gruyère can have stronger flavours. This will depend on the length of the ageing process.

Hard cheeses are much denser than soft cheeses, due to the fact that they have been pressed at different stages of the production process. These cheeses contain less water than their softer counterparts. Furthermore, the production process is lengthened by the long maturing phase the cheese requires before consumption.

Most of these cheeses have a clear visual difference to all other cheeses: the blue veining. Strength of taste can vary from quite mild blue Bries to strong, pungent Roqueforts. Texture as well can range from creamy to harder and crumbly. Some blue cheeses have a soft velvety rind like Bries and Camemberts, others have a harder crust and some have nothing. The combinations are endless and there are many varieties of blue cheeses available.

Many think that the blue mould is injected in the cheese at the end of the production process but actually penicillium cultures are added at the start of the production process and the cheeses once moulded are pierced so air can enter and make the penicillium develop into mould. The maturing phase of blue cheeses ranges from just a few weeks for products such as blue Bries to a few months for products such as Roquefort or Stilton.

Although Goats' cheeses can often be sorted into other cheese categories, they are so numerous that French cheese-makers wanted to create a separate category for them. They believe that the taste profile of a goats' milk cheese is too different from that of a cows' milk cheese for them to be grouped together.

These cheeses are all made out of goats' milk. Depending on the length of the maturing process they can be creamy and smooth, or offer a crust. Cœur de Lion Chavroux is a fresh goats' cheese, this means its production process ends after the draining phase. La Buche, on the other hand, will be moved into a cellar, where the ageing process will take place.