We developed the Cheese Grotto to be the perfect home for all your cheeses. It creates the humidity your cheese needs to taste its best and extend its shelf life, and it looks great while doing it. Think of it as a humidor for cheese, simulating the high-moisture , protected conditions of the cheese cave In our experience, these wraps—a piece of fabric coated with beeswax, resin, and jojoba oil—work okay for storing cheese when used correctly.

The best part? There’s no wrapping needed—which means no waste and no ongoing costs. Just delicious, fresh-tasting cheese in a beautiful box that you can store on your counter or in your refrigerator. Cheese paper—and cheese storage bags, which are pre-folded pouches made from cheese paper—is a good option for all the reasons plastic isn’t. It’s opaque, and it wraps tightly enough around the cheese to protect it without mummifying the cheese like plastic does.We see cheese vacuum-sealed and wrapped in clear plastic all the time, everywhere from fine cheese shops to supermarket shelves. And we haven’t even gotten into the fact that plastic wrap isn’t exactly sustainable. It’s single-use, not recyclable, and takes up to a thousand years to break down in the landfill. Yikes! In general, until about an hour before you’re ready to eat it, cheese should be stored in the refrigerator. The cold helps to preserve it and keep premature mold growth at bay—all things we want when storing cheese. In general, it’s a good idea to keep your cheese in the cheese drawer or crisper to protect it from the drying air of your fridge. Cheese is a living food. It needs to breathe. That’s the guiding principle of storing cheese, and here’s why.

While wax wraps are reusable, you have to wash them between uses, which means more work. And eventually, they lose the waxy coating that protects the cheese. They can be composted, if that’s something you have access to, but you still have to replace them regularly. Not the most sustainable option. If you have a cool space in your home between 45 to 60 degrees, like a cellar or basement, you can even use the Grotto to age your own cheese. It’s like having a cheese cave in your home. How cool is that? Translucent plastic also lets light in, which can oxidize the cheese and create off-flavors on its outer surface. That’s why it’s always a good idea to lightly scrape a knife against the cut surfaces of plastic-wrapped cheeses, especially if they’ve been sitting under bright fluorescent lights at the grocery store for who knows how long.Depending on the variety, cheeses are aged for anywhere from a few weeks to several months to several years. As long as the wheels remain whole, they’ll keep aging and developing. Once your neighborhood cheesemonger or cheesemaker cuts into that cheese, the aging process stops.