What Are the World Cheese Awards?

The World Cheese Awards are the world's largest competition dedicated exclusively to cheese. Organised by the Guild of Fine Food in the UK, the event has been held annually since 1988, with a different host country each year. Cheesemakers, retailers, buyers, chefs, and food writers from around the world come together to taste and judge thousands of cheeses.

Every cheese entered is assessed by an international panel of experts representing nearly 40 countries. Medals are awarded in four categories—Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Super Gold—and are widely recognised as marks of exceptional quality and craftsmanship.

How Many Cheeses Take Part?

At the 2025 World Cheese Awards, a record 5,244 cheeses from 46 countries were entered, making it the largest cheese competition in the world.

The coveted Super Gold award is one of the competition's highest honours and is reserved for only a select number of cheeses. In 2025, just 107 cheeses received this distinction.

Where Were the 2025 World Cheese Awards Held?

The 2025 World Cheese Awards took place on 13 November 2025 in Bern, Switzerland—the first time the competition had ever been hosted there.

In 2026, the event will move to Córdoba, Andalusia (Spain). Each year, a different host country is selected to celebrate local cheese culture and promote food tourism around the world.

How Are the Cheeses Judged?

The judging focuses solely on the sensory quality of each cheese. Every entry is evaluated according to criteria such as:

• Appearance

• Texture

• Aroma

• Flavour

Factors such as origin, brand recognition, marketing, or sustainability are not considered. The cheese alone determines the result.

To ensure consistency, cheeses are tasted in a carefully planned order—from mild varieties to the most intensely flavoured. Between samples, judges cleanse their palates to keep every assessment as objective as possible.

Judging takes place across more than 100 judging tables, where teams of two or three experts evaluate around 50 cheeses each. The highest-scoring cheeses at every table receive Bronze, Silver, or Gold medals.

Each judging table also selects one outstanding cheese to receive a Super Gold award. These cheeses then advance to a final round, where an expert jury selects the 14 best cheeses of the competition.

The final judging is held in public, with a panel of 14 international experts tasting and discussing the finalists before crowning the overall World Champion Cheese.

Our Results at the 2025 World Cheese Awards

We entered 12 cheeses, and nine received medals—an achievement that even many long-established cheesemakers rarely accomplish.

Every medal is earned solely on the quality of the cheese. The judges do not know the producer or the brand—they judge only what is on the tasting table.

Gold

Kleiner Husumer
Our creamy semi-soft cheese with washed-rind cultures, offering flavours that range from mild and aromatic to pleasantly piquant.

Deichkäse Gold
Our unique mite-ripened hard cheese with an intensely savoury umami flavour.

Silver

Wollemeyer
A richly flavoured sheep's milk blue cheese with fresh, salty notes inspired by the North Sea.

Michel
A robust hard cheese made from 50% raw cow's milk and 50% goat's milk. It received Silver in 2025—after an even more remarkable achievement the previous year.

Großer Husumer
A larger, longer-aged version of our Husumer cheese with added creaminess and depth of flavour.

Kleiner Deichkäse
Our signature Deichkäse—full-bodied, mildly aromatic, and wonderfully versatile.

Bronze

Hofkäse
The very first cheese created by our dairy's founder—a true piece of Backensholzer Hof history.

Deichkäse Aged 4 Months
A beautifully balanced cheese with nutty aromas and a creamy yet firm texture.

Friesisch Blue
Our farmhouse blue cheese, offering buttery richness with a delicate melt and elegant blue cheese character.

All award-winning cheeses display their latest medals directly on their individual product pages in our online shop.

Our Highlights from Previous Years: Two Finals and a Super Gold for Michel

At the 2024 World Cheese Awards in Viseu, Portugal, three of our cheeses received Gold medals, while Michel was awarded the prestigious Super Gold distinction—one of only 107 cheeses selected from approximately 4,500 entries worldwide.

In 2022, our Deichkäse Aged 12 Months reached the Top 16 cheeses in the world.

The following year, Michel and Deichkäse Gold both reached the final round, placing two Backensholzer cheeses among the world's 16 best cheeses.

Michel is a distinctive hard cheese made from 50% raw cow's milk from our own farm and 50% pasteurised goat's milk. Its bold Alpine character and exceptionally long finish helped it stand out among thousands of outstanding cheeses—a recognition that makes us incredibly proud and demonstrates that Backensholzer Hof competes at the highest international level.

Why Is a World Cheese Awards Medal So Prestigious?

At national competitions, judges are often familiar with the region or even the producer, and the field of competitors is naturally more limited.

The World Cheese Awards are different.

Thousands of cheeses from more than 40 countries are judged anonymously. The judges see neither the producer nor the country of origin. Only the cheese itself—its texture, aroma, rind, and flavour—is evaluated.

Winning a Gold Medal among more than 5,000 entries is therefore an extraordinary achievement.

The fact that Backensholzer Hof earns multiple medals year after year is no coincidence. It reflects exceptional raw milk, meticulous craftsmanship, and the dedication of our cheesemaking team.

Our dairy founder, Martina Metzger-Petersen, established the guiding principle:

"Great cheesemaking begins in the field."

We continue to follow this philosophy today through our closed-loop farm system, producing our own feed and caring for every stage of the process—from pasture to finished cheese.

Buy Our Award-Winning Cheeses

All of our award-winning cheeses are available directly from our online shop.

Orders are dispatched Monday through Thursday, with sustainable insulated jute packaging used during the warmer months. Within northern Germany, deliveries typically arrive the following day.

You can also send your order as a gift by selecting an alternative delivery address and gift packaging during checkout.

For more information about our shipping process, see our article on Shipping Cheese.

Conclusion: World-Class Cheese from North Frisia

The 2025 World Cheese Awards once again confirmed that the cheeses from Backensholzer Hof rank among the very best in the world.

Winning nine medals, including two Gold awards, reflects decades of dedication to artisan raw milk cheesemaking, certified Bioland farming, and our sustainable farm cycle.

We are incredibly proud of these achievements—and even happier whenever new cheese lovers discover the difference for themselves.

Last updated: 13 June 2026

Content note

This article was created in collaboration with Thilo Metzger-Petersen, son of our dairy founder and Head of the Dairy and Farm Shop at Backensholzer Hof. Thilo attended the 2023 World Cheese Awards in Trondheim and experienced the atmosphere of the competition firsthand.