What to Bring Back from the Netherlands: Choosing Farm-Fresh Cheese as a Gift

This year, Dutch cheesemakers made history at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin. Out of more than 3,000 global entries, judges crowned a Dutch Gouda—Beemster Royaal Grand Cru—the absolute best cheese in the world.

Forget bringing home a bland, plastic-wrapped block from duty-free. If you’re heading to the Netherlands, here is the story behind the champion cheese, what makes it special, and where to buy it without falling for tourist traps.

What Beemster Royaal Grand Cru Is and Why It Won Over the World

This cheese is crafted by CONO Kaasmakers, a small cheesemaking cooperative that has been operating in Westbeemster since 1901. This year marks the cooperative’s 125th anniversary. The cheese is made from the milk of cows grazing in the fields of the Beemster Polder. This area is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its complex 17th-century system of canals and dams, which makes the local soil exceptionally rich in minerals.

The secret to its flavor lies in the milk itself and in time. The cheese is aged naturally on wooden boards for about a year. During this time, characteristic ripening crystals form within the cheese structure—tiny, crunchy spots that are considered the ultimate marker of a high-quality aged Gouda. The judges praised its complex profile: a deep, nutty flavor with distinct caramel notes, which edged out Swiss competitors by mere fractions of a point.

This isn’t the cheese’s first award—a year earlier, it earned a Super Gold at the World Cheese Awards. But the 2026 World Champion Cheese title has become the biggest milestone in the brand’s entire history.

Why Cheese Makes the Most Practical Souvenir

Tulips, wooden clogs, and windmill magnets are all cute. But a truly universal gift that anyone will appreciate is cheese. It has a massive advantage over other souvenirs:

• No refrigeration needed for transport. Hard, aged varieties (like the old Amsterdam oude kaas or Beemster itself) keep perfectly at room temperature. They can easily sit out for two to six months. The main thing is to buy cheese in a natural wax rind or factory vacuum seal. Soft, young varieties are not suitable for packing in a suitcase.
• Versatility. It is a perfect pairing for wine and a standalone snack that captures the culture of the country better than any magnets ever could.

Where to Buy Cheese: A Farm or a Specialty Shop

Drawing on my years of experience as a sommelier, I have a strict rule here: you should buy cheese either directly at a farm or in a specialty shop. Avoid the tourist traps on the central streets of Amsterdam, which often sell low-quality souvenir versions at inflated prices.

At a farm, you see the entire process with your own eyes—from the cow to the finished cheese wheel—and you buy the product directly from the maker, without the middleman markup. Specialty shops (kaaswinkel) are staffed by experts who understand the varieties and will gladly let you taste several types before you buy—this is also a solid option if a farm isn’t on your itinerary.

I Invite You on a Tour of the Dutch Countryside—Where the World’s Best Cheese is Born

This is exactly why I always include not just the classics in my tours—the Zaanse Schans windmill museum and the waterfront of the fishing village of Volendam—but also a visit to an authentic, working dairy farm.

Zaanse Schans is a unique open-air museum on the banks of the Zaan River, preserving authentic Dutch windmills from the 18th and 19th centuries. Some are still operational today—grinding paint, pressing oil, and sawing wood, just as they did three centuries ago. You can step inside one of the windmills and see with your own eyes how this incredible mechanism, which drove the Dutch economy for centuries, actually works.

Volendam is a fishing village featuring wooden houses and a long promenade along the Markermeer bay. Here, you can eat the famous lightly salted herring right by the water, watch the moored boats, and simply stroll along the dike, taking in the scent of the wind, the sea, and smoked fish.

Between these two stops, we visit a real, working farm, where you can see firsthand how high-tech and automated Dutch dairy production is today: automated milking systems and computer-controlled milk quality—right next to the traditional craft of cheesemaking that has been passed down from generation to generation.

At the farm, we taste over 30 varieties of the world’s best cheese—made from cow’s, goat’s, and sheep’s milk, featuring different aging periods and flavor profiles: from soft, young wheels to heavily aged Gouda packed with those crunchy crystals. This is the cheese that my family and I personally love, and I am genuinely thrilled to share this passion with the guests on my tours. It is exactly at these kinds of farms that I recommend stocking up on delicious gifts to take home.

What to Expect on the Dutch Countryside Tour

Trying to understand the Netherlands without herring, craft beer, and local Gouda is as hard as understanding Italy without pasta. That’s why gastronomy is woven into every single one of my itineraries. We explore the country not through a timeline of rulers, but through the daily habits of the locals: how they make cheese, what they eat on the waterfront, and how they preserve traditions across centuries.

To see historic windmills in action, eat herring right by the bay, and pick out authentic farm cheese without tourist markups, I put together a dedicated countryside route—Dutch Villages Tour from Amsterdam.

I take care of all the logistics. The tour runs at a pace that is comfortable for you: whether you want to spend more time at the dairy farm or sip coffee with a view of the water, we have the time for it. The route is flexible and built around your interests.

To book a date or ask questions: Message me on WhatsApp: +31 619 780 754

Tatyana, your tour guide in the Netherlands and Belgium 🌷🌷