If you have spent much time in North Eastern Ohio, you likely have tried some of the world-famous cheeses offered in the area.  One name that rings notoriety in the region is Guggisberg Baby Swiss.

There is no other Baby Swiss cheese that tastes quite as delicate, as buttery, as creamy as the one called Guggisberg, and there’s a good reason for that.  Guggisberg is the ORIGINAL Baby Swiss. I moved away from the area many years ago and not a year goes by that I don’t receive a half wheel of this award-winning cheese at Christmas time. It is a taste of childhood. A taste of home. And when I share it with friends, their minds are blown at this Amish Country deliciousness.

“That’s from Ohio?!?” they ask.

To which I proudly respond, “It sure is.”

But it wasn’t originally.  How did it come about?  From where did this empire grow?  I did a little digging into this infamous name in Ohio swiss cheese culture (pun intended).

A Litte History Of Guggisberg Cheese:

Alfred Guggisberg came to America in 1947 after YEARS of perfecting the craft of creating great traditional Swiss cheese. He began at a young age in his childhood home, in the Swiss Alps, and later attended the Swiss Federal “Molkereishulle” (cheese maker’s institute).  Shortly after his arrival in Ohio, he was a hot commodity among Amish dairy farmers who were looking for someone to transform the milk of their labors into delicious snack food.  Soon thereafter, Alfred took over Doughty Valley Cheese and renamed it, Guggisberg, in 1950.

Margaret and Alfred Guggisberg

A decade later, the cheese maker had developed a new type of Swiss cheese that was a better fit for pallets of Americans.  The results of experimentation with local milk was a smaller wheel with smaller holes and a creamier flavor than the traditional Emmental Swiss.  When presented with the petiteness of this experimental cheese, his wife dubbed it “Baby Swiss.”  And that is the story of the evolution of this Ohio snack staple.

Today, “The company has grown into one of the larger manufacturers of Swiss cheese in the US, and one of the biggest cheese manufacturers of any sort in all of Ohio.”

And, lucky for all of us who don’t live close enough to take a drive to Shisler’s whenever we get a snack attack, Guggisberg Baby Swiss is available online!

Try our Baby Swiss and Troyer’s Gift Box

Order online from our store, or (if you’re lucky enough) stop by to see Rita and pick up a wheel. Trust me when I say, you’ll want to pick up some Troyer’s Trail Bologna and some Hot Pepper Jelly as well to create the PERFECT bite!

If you’re interested in more of the history of this family and their successes in the Ohio cheese world, the full story is available here.