The Best Cheese in the World in 2026 Is a Dutch Gouda — And It Deserves the Crown

August 13, 2026

Every year, a group of very serious people in a room in Wisconsin spend three days sticking holes in cheese and assigning numbers to it. I say this with the utmost respect — because the outcome of the 2026 World Championship Cheese Contest is genuinely exciting: Beemster Royaal Grand Cru, a 12-month-aged Gouda from the Netherlands, has been crowned the best cheese on the planet.

Let's talk about what it takes to beat 3,374 other cheeses from 25 countries and 34 U.S. states.

The Champion: 98.68 out of 100

Beemster Royaal Grand Cru scored a staggering 98.68 points — a number so close to perfection it makes Olympic judges look stingy. Made by CONO Kaasmakers in Westbeemster, Netherlands, this is a Gouda that has been aged for a full year on wooden planks, developing the kind of crystalline crunch and nutty depth that makes you close your eyes involuntarily when you eat it.

It's not just another Gouda. Royaal Grand Cru was originally created to celebrate Beemster's appointment as a hofleverancier — a royal warrant holder, which is Dutch for "the king likes our cheese so much he gave us a certificate." When a cheese is literally royal-approved before it even enters a competition, you know the competition has its work cut out.

What It Beat

The 2026 contest attracted entries across 148 classes — everything from fresh mozzarella to the kind of blue cheese that could double as a biohazard suit. A Spanish Manchego from Quesos La Pasada earned third place, and an American entry from Rogue Creamery in Oregon — a Smoked Blue — took second, proving the U.S. can at least stand on the podium next to European royalty.

But the Dutch walked away with the crown, which feels right. The Netherlands is a country that takes cheese so seriously they have an entire museum circuit for it. When you win a cheese competition as a Dutch producer, you're not beating foreigners — you're beating your neighbors, which is always sweeter.

The Takeaway

If you can find a wedge of Beemster Royaal Grand Cru, buy it. Slice it thin. Pair it with a dark, malty beer — a good brown ale, not some hop bomb — and prepare to understand why the Dutch are quietly smug about their dairy game.

The reigning champion of world cheese is a Gouda that took a year to make and about three seconds to claim the title. That's efficiency. That's quality. That's a cow doing its job at world-class levels.