The 9 Best Brie-Style Cheeses for Brie Lovers

The best “bries” on earth don’t always have brie in their names, and therein lies some potential consumer confusion. Brie isn’t a category of cheese, merely a player in the bloomy rind game, but its proliferation in an industrial form, typically available at grocery stores, makes many consumers believe that anything that looks like brie, is a brie. Read more about bries. 

 

But those in the know, know to look way beyond the pronounceability of the word “brie” to the bloomy rind beauties of a variety of names who better represent the category. “I love brie-style cheeses for their rich creamy flavors and potentially pungent aroma profiles,” says Lissa Knudsen, the board president for the newly formed New Mexico Cheese Guild, “especially the unique character of small scale artisan-made varieties, which stand out distinctly from their mass-produced counterparts. I also love that these cheeses can be warmed and dipped into, creating an interactive and communal experience that’s texturally delightful.”

No disrespect to Brie de Meaux, which is exactly everything brie should be as described above, but here are nine of the best cheeses for brie lovers, as recommended by a variety of cheese pros.

 

La Tur

This wrinkly cupcake of a bloomy rind cheese appropriately rhymes with “l’amour,” but La Tur is notably Italian in pedigree. (Just one of the many reasons not to call it “brie.”) “It’s super creamy, earthy, and a bit tangy,” says Prudence DiBenedetto, cheesemonger at Manhattan’s Murray’s Cheese. “This palm-sized creamy cheese combines cow, sheep, and goat milk to create a gooey, almost cheese spread,” she says. (Proof also that excellent brie substitutes aren’t limited to those made exclusively with cow’s milk.) “I put it on some cinnamon raisin toast to create a delightful breakfast treat.” Another good preparation of La Tur? Stick a candle in it and present it as an actual birthday cupcake to your favorite brie lover.

 

Brillat-Savarin

Leaning into the ability of bloomy rind cheeses to be communal experiences, “I love Brillat-Savarin for a special occasion cheese since it’s a perfect party size to just cut the top off and dip or spoon to your hearts’ delight,” says Anne-Marie Pietersma, ACS CCP and founder of Trust Your Taste. “It takes like fresh cream and butter but with a bit something extra. The depth of the cheese, both emotional and physical, allows it to have multiple textures as it ages and the creamline becomes more prominent,” she says. A triple creme bloomy with French origin, I’d put Brillat-Savarin as probably closest to the paradigm for “brie” without actually being brie, albeit in a slightly larger format, at a full pound per wheel. Plus Brillat-Savarin allows for some good storytelling: “It’s one of my favorites to teach since the guy it’s named after was so eccentric,” says Pietersma. “He’s the guy that said ‘tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are,’ so I guess I’m soft, a little pungent, and great at a party.”

 

Fleur de la Prairie

It should also go without saying that some of the best brie substitutes are not only not French, but not even European, as exceptional American cheese makers have been dabbling in bloomy rinds pretty much as long as they’ve been dabbling in anything. “One of my favorite cheese makers is Prairie Fruits Farm down state in Champaign, IL,” says Agela Abdullah, board member of the Cheese Culture Coalition, “and my current favorite is their Fleur de la Prairie,” a goat’s milk, geotrichum candidum-influenced bloomy artfully decorated with dried herbs and flowers. “The growing season in the Midwest can be short so to get this delicate little round of cheese highlighting the flowers, herbs, and milk of the season is a true delight,” says Abdullah. 

 

Walden

There comes a time in every brie lover’s life when one must ask the question, “do washed rind bloomies count for brie substitutes?” In response I point to Tennessee-based Sequatchie Cove’s website, where they helpfully list “brie” among the options that its lightly-washed Walden may be substituted for. (Case closed. Other suggestions include: cream cheese, avocado, pastry filling, neck pillow, and aromatherapy.) Recommended by Sarah Wilkins, sales manager for Carrboro, North Carolina’s The Cheese Shop, “It’s the perfect sized little guy that’s lightly washed for a hint of funk that pairs perfectly with the grassy, mild, gooey cow’s milk, and the thin rind gives it that perfect ‘bite’ texturally,” she says. “Growing up, I’d spend my summers in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee and love to be reminded of just how beautiful that area is— this cheese takes me there.” Consider this option a brie sequel: ooze, but make it funky.

 

Thistle

Brie often gets top billing when it comes to mis-identifying bloomy rind cheeses, but brie’s mushroomy cousin, camembert, is also worthy of a tribute cheese or two. Brittany Bisset, owner of The B’s Cheese, highlights Thistle by Pennsylvania’s Valley Milkhouse as a brie-lover’s dream cheese in camembert clothing. Made with locally sourced, grass-fed milk from the Oley Valley and expressing seasonal changes, “Thistle is a camembert-style that offers notes of vanilla bean, sour cream and as you get closer to the rind, that earthy/shroomy flavor that camembert is known for,” she says. “Its dual-texture paste has something for everyone: drier in the middle and fudgy like marshmallow fluff in between the middle and the rind making every bite the perfect one.”

 

Merry Goat Round

Another goat’s milk nomination for brie lovers who take their bloomies with a hint of tang. Merry Goat Round — also an irresistible name — is hand-crafted by FireFly Farms in Accident, MD. (Happy Accident!) “It’s a beautiful, mid-sized puck of goat brie, and I love it because of its smooth, silky texture and distinct but approachable flavor,” says Evey from  New Seasons Market. “This is the goat brie to break that person who doesn’t like goat brie. When it’s a little older and reaches peak flavor and liquefaction is best for me. I like it with a rich fermented black bean chili oil. To die for.”  

 

Délice de Bourgogne

If “buttery” is the quality you most seek in a brie alternative, consider a triple creme option that’s just shy of actually being butter. “Triple cremes are my desert island cheeses,” says Jimme Mares, National Talent Development & Operations Manager for Murray’s Cheese. “Délice de Bourgogne is so voluptuous with her milky creamy layers and her rich, buttery tendencies.” Délice is actually a smaller format version of Brillat-Savarin, outlined above, providing a bigger rind to paste ratio for those that also appreciate the gentle toothsomeness of the rind itself. It’s also more widely available than Brillat-Savarin, meaning you can get your brie fix as easily as your local Trader Joe’s.

 

Fromager d’Affinois Le Fromager

Often right next to anything called brie in the grocer’s case is a better brie-like cheese, for example Fromager d’Affinois Le Fromager. This producer uses a special ultrafiltration method and uses custom ferments developed by Guilloteau that yields a consistently rich creamy texture. It also has a rind that is typically thinner than brie. An award-winning cheese, it is available plain, but also with truffles, herbs or roasted pumpkin seeds (seasonally). Cheese Professor editor Amy Sherman appreciates how widely accessible it is and it’s reasonable price point.

 

Mt Tam

It would be remiss not to include one of the United States’ original forays into European-style, bloomy rind cheeses, so this recommendation is from me. A dense and compact triple creme made with organic milk, Cowgirl Creamery’s Mt Tam is fudgy, pudgy, and bright, and set the bar for what an American “brie” could aspire to be.