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Comment by stephenhuey | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I should do something like that instead of software! What about the cheese market in the United States? Americans are branching out more and more from the limited kinds made here, so it seems like a worthwhile business venture might be to start making some of the European kinds we import.

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Not a bad idea. But, I don't think there is great demand + a shortage of cheeses. Many grocery stores already have "gourmet" sections of "fancier" cheeses. If there was any increase in interest I would imagine they would be the ones detecting that, and jumping to capitalize on it. Some branches in metropolitan areas, do and have expanded those sections, for example.

For cultural reasons Americans simply don't seem to like cheeses that are not bagged, shredded and kept in the refrigerator. (American HNers might be surprised to find that a lot of cheeses are not meant to be kept in the refrigerator). Good cheese is like a living organism, it not something dead that needs to be kept cold. It has bacteria that lives on it and it alters and changes its taste. I believe you won't even be able to sell that in US simply because of local food safety laws -- cheeses have to be pasteurized to be sold here.

Putting stuff in the fridge doesn't kill the bacteria, it just slows its rate of reproduction down. Pasteurization doesn't kill all the bacteria either, it just greatly reduces the presence of microorganisms in food.

I don't think marketing a high quality cheese is going to be impossible in America, (well, maybe not Casu marzu, but I don't give a crap how good that is, I'm not eating it) you'd need to educate your customers and take steps in terms of packaging or co-products to help them use the product best.

Generally, when you need to educate your customers, you are in for a long (and likely unsuccessful) haul. If you are "educating", your customers aren't really feeling a pain.

(Note: there are exceptions to every rule.)

For those of you wondering what Casu marzu is: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Casu_marzu

Around here (Small college town area, middle of farmland), all the grocery stores have a gourmet cheese section. A "made in America" gourmet cheese is not going to be an instant-win unless it offers additional value. Possibly the "localvore" approach might add some warm fuzzies to the value, but I am dubious.

(Of course, if it can be sold cheaper by being made in America, that's a great selling point!)

I see that market as pretty occupied right now.

This seems like a very poor idea if you are trying to pull off something on the order of Chobani.

The United States already produces over twice the amount of cheese of any other country. It seems to me that you are not from Wisconsin and I would guess not from any of the states where cheese is big. Try going to a supermarket in Vermont or New York...the market for imported cheeses would be quite small.

True, I'm in Texas. Here in the middle of Houston I see fairly large sections of imported cheeses in some grocery stores.

From the small cheese manufactures I've seen it requires a long term love of the process and a resource, something like a family farm without a significant mortgage. The markup on artisan cheese seems pretty incredible.

Looking at what I can get in supermarkets here in Italy, and seeing what's available when I visit back home in the states, I think there are huge opportunities in this space. I intend to investigate if we ever move back to the US.

Another issue may be related to the FDA. It is my understanding that raw milk (unpasteurized) imparts a different flavor/texture to the cheese. I guess we have laws against cheese made with raw milk.

I am not a cheese maker, I've merely read this on food blogs.

Raw milk has a lot the bacteria needed to make the cheese already in it. Cheesemaking is basically farming bacteria... You get more variability and a generally better product with unpasterized cheese.

I mainly eat cheese from unpasteurized milk...

American Roquefort caves.

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