Full disclosure: I’m from Wisconsin, and I love cheese. So it isn’t surprising that the news that a Wisconsin cheese won the World Championship Cheese contest has me over the moon (which is made of cheese, of course). But we can all be proud, friends, because this is the world championship, and no U.S. cheese has won the title in nearly 30 years… until now. America!

A smear ripened hard cheese made in Monroe, WI by a company called Emmi Roth USA was named best in show this week out of 2,955 entries from around the world, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. It scored a 99.8 to win its category.

Cheesemakers hailing from Switzerland have won four out of five of the last world championships. Other countries to top the cheese pile have included Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, and Australia.

The last time an American cheesemaker trumped the rest of the world was in 1988, when an American hero named Dale Olson of Grantsburg’s Burnett Dairy Cooperative in northwestern Wisconsin won for a string cheese.

“1988’s a long time ago,” John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, which runs the contest, told the newspaper. “I think the World Champion is really a opportunity to have product sales improve. I don’t think it will be subtle for them.”

A Wisconsin cheese wins the World Championship Cheese Contest [Wisconsin State Journal]

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