Colby Cheese

Some claim that Joseph Steinwand, a cheesemaker, purposefully experimented in 1885 to create an altogether new variety of orange cheese. Others claim that the discovery was a mistake brought about by his carelessness while creating cheese during the cheddaring process. Whatever it was, the new cheese was less dry and had a gentler flavor than aged cheddar. It could also be produced faster than cheddar because it did not require the laborious cheddaring procedure to get the cheese ready for aging and curing.

Steinwand gave the new cheese the name Colby cheese in honor of the Wisconsin town of Colby, where it was invented, rather than his own business. His cheese has an orange color, irregular holes, a little grainy texture, and is classified as semi-hard cheese. The cheese also goes by the moniker Longhorn Colby Cheese since it is typically made in long cylinders known as Longhorns.

Since Colby was produced here and not in an effort to copy or outperform an already-existing European cheese, it can be considered the first truly American cheese. It has been combined with another American cheese, Monterey Jack, to create a well-liked snack cheese. Colby (and Monterey Jack) make up a sizable amount of the almost $1.4 billion worth of cheese that the US exports annually, ranking it as the fifth-largest cheese exporter in the world.