Connecticut Cheesemakers and Cheese Shops

Arethusa prides itself on “milk like it used to taste,” thanks to the high standards of care for its herd of prized dairy cows. All of its premium dairy items (milk, ice cream, butter, yogurt, and a popular seasonal eggnog) are produced and packaged in its Bantam dairy, with cheese joining the repertoire in 2011. 

Arethusa now offers nine types of cheeses, from bloomy-rind Camembert to a creamy British-style blue and the award-winning Europa, a take on a classic Dutch Gouda. Europa earned first place at the United States Championship Cheese Contest in 2025, and recently made it to Culture Magazine’s list of the Best Cheeses of 2026. “This domestic delicacy features a golden paste that’s equal parts luscious butterscotch and nutty umami flavor,” Culture editors noted.

Cato Corner was named one of the top 50 U.S. cheesemakers by Food & Wine in 2021, joining Arethusa as the only two Connecticut entries on the list. Mother and son team Liz MacAlister and Mark Gilman produce the raw milk cheeses from the milk of the Colchester farm’s Jersey cows, with recipes based on traditional cheesemaking styles. 

The cheeses highlight the flavor and terroir of its pastures and farm, with popular selections like Bloomsday (described as an excellent substitute for medium cheddar or Spanish Manchego), Black Ledge Blue (a “moderately creamy, medium strong” natural rind blue cheese) and Vivace, “like a combination of Emmenthaler and Italian provolone.” 

In recent years, Cato Corner has added pasteurized milk cheeses to its offerings, making younger and softer styles like mozzarella, feta and bloomy rind varieties.

Mystic Cheese got its start in a shipping container on a Lebanon farm in 2013. More than a dozen years later, its cheesemaking facility in Groton produces a variety of styles: everything from fresh, young cheeses like its signature Melinda Mae to aged selections like The Gray, a Cheshire-style cheese that was named to Culture Magazine’s Best of 2025 list. Find Mystic cheeses and assorted provisions at its shop in Stonington’s Velvet Mill building.

The UConn Creamery is known for its stellar ice cream, produced and sold on campus at its popular Dairy Bar. But its cheeses have been in the spotlight, too, made with the same high-quality milk from the campus’s dairy cows. 

Its artisanal 1881 Reserve Monterey Jack earned a first-place honor at the 2024 American Cheese Society Annual Judging and Competition, while its Storrs Original Farmstead Jack, Old Farm Lane Fresh Cheese (a queso blanco style) and Green Chile Old Farm Lane Fresh Cheese took home medals from the regional Big E Cheese Competition that same year. 

The creamery has also produced a unique Juustoleipa, a Finnish-style fresh cheese known as “bread cheese” because of its browned crust.

The Lyme farm, which has been in the Sankow family since 1917, produces a variety of cheeses from both cow’s and sheep’s milk. Cheeses made with the farm’s own Jersey cow milk include Nehantic Abbey, aged six months or more with a dry, sharp flavor; and Pleasant Cow, aged for a smooth mild flavor and creamy texture. An aged feta cheese is crafted with Beaver Brook Farm sheep’s milk, which also goes into the farm’s signature feta pesto product.

The Abbey of Regina Laudis, a Benedictine abbey in Bethlehem, was designated as a Dairy of Distinction since 1976. Its dairy, which began in 1975 as the community received its first cow from a local farmer, is part of its “monastic obligation to wise land stewardship and preservation of traditional techniques,” the Abbey notes on its website.

 In 1977, the Abbey began making Bethlehem cheese, a pressed, uncooked, semi-hard, fungal-ripened cheese in the style of Saint-Nectaire from Auvergne in central France. The dairy has also produced an aged Alpine style cheese called Benedic, along with several soft cheeses like ricotta, mozzarella, and feta. 

The Abbey has recently restarted its cheesemaking as of early 2026, after renovations to the building where its products are ripened. Aged cheeses will be available for purchase in the future.

Sweet Pea Cheese is known for its array of products made from goat and cow milk, including fresh feta, labneh (a creamy cheese made from strained yogurt) and fresh chèvre seasoned with different flavors: pear cardamom, herbes de provence, garlic and dill; rosemary fig, and other sweet and savory options.

Deerfield Farm produces whole milk basket ricotta and Brianna, described as “a soft creamy fresh cheese made from our whole Jersey milk.” It’s offered in plain, garlic/chive, crushed red pepper, and dill flavors, and the farm suggests spreading it on crackers or cucumber slices or using it as a mayonnaise substitute on sandwiches and wraps.

Sweet Grass Creamery turns its fresh milk into artisan cheeses right on the farm, hand-crafted following the age-old traditions for making farmstead cheeses. Its whole milk ricotta is “rich enough for lasagna and sweet enough for dessert,” and its other products include mascarpone, labneh, and cheese curds.

The Italian gourmet food market, and its cheesemaking operation in Hamden, represent five generations of family tradition. Brothers Pasquale (Lino) and Nicola Liuzzi founded the business in Connecticut in 1981, but trace their family’s cheesemaking roots back to 1826 in Noci, Puglia. Liuzzi’s Italian cheeses are sold nationally, including fresh varieties of mozzarella, ricotta, burrata, scamorza, caciocavallo, mascarpone, and stracciatella.

The business was founded in Connecticut in 1953 by Sicilian cheesemaker Joseph Calabro, beginning as a small family-run dairy delivering fresh ricotta. Today, Calabro's East Haven facility produces a full line of Italian cheeses, including mozzarella, burrata, mascarpone, ricotta, and specialty items like scamorza and caciocavallo. 

Calf + Clover Creamery produces milk, yogurt, and a basket ricotta cheese that’s hand-scooped and drained for two hours. The farm describes it as “a work-horse cheese to fill out your weekly menus,” suitable for both savory dishes and desserts or just “enjoyed on a good crusty bread with a dash of salt and a drizzle of EVOO.”

Lavender Hills Farm owner Kristie Laverdiere took over Lost Ruby Farm’s cheesemaking business in 2023, producing pasteurized chèvre in classic and creative flavors like garlic, herbs de provence, smokin’ hot with smoked paprika and maple hot sauce, honey lavender, and dark chocolate.

Hastings Farm in Suffield has produced aged hard cheddar, Gouda and Havarti style cheeses in the past, but its cheesemaking is currently on hold as of January 2026, according to its website. The farm still sells its own ricotta.

Rare Breed Cheese produces cheeses like The Lazy Bloom (a Camembert-style bloomy rind cheese), The Farmers Wedge (a young farmers' style cheese, aged for just about a week), and The Milk Moon, described as a creamy, spreadable variety. Follow Rare Breed's Instagram for updates on cheesemaking and farmers' market appearances.

In addition to milk and yogurt products, Woodstock Creamery also produces fresh ricotta cheese, along with labneh (a spreadable yogurt cheese) in flavors like bacon chive, basil pesto, everything bagel, roasted red pepper, and rosemary garlic. 

Are you looking for special cheeses and provisions to build a perfect grazing board, enhance your cooking, or bring to a gathering? These Connecticut cheese shops will have everything you need.

• 109 Cheese & Wine, Kent and Ridgefield 
• Bon Appetit, Hamden 
• Caseus Provisions, Wallingford 
• The Cheese Shop of Centerbrook, Centerbrook 
• Cherry Street Cheese & Provisions, New Canaan 
• Darien Cheese & Fine Foods, Darien 
• Dom’s Cheese, Avon 
• Fairfield/Greenwich Cheese Company, Fairfield and Greenwich 
• Fromage Fine Foods & Coffee, Old Saybrook 
• Madison Cheese, Madison 
• New Curds on the Block, Oakville 

Artisanal vegan cheese options: Divine Treasures in Manchester; Three Girls Vegan in Guilford.