The Cheese Grotto can also be used to store cheeses in your refrigerator for longer-term storage. It’ll stay fresh for up to 3 weeks unwrapped. When you’re ready to serve your cheese, simply take the Grotto out of your refrigerator at least an hour before you want to dig in to allow the cheese to come up to room temperature. That way, it will taste lively and flavorful, with smooth, supple textures when you’re ready to eat. Because of this, it’s important that your cheese storage method allows your cheese to breathe without letting it dry out.

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 We see cheese vacuum-sealed and wrapped in clear plastic all the time, everywhere from fine cheese shops to supermarket shelves.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. 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! But that doesn’t mean your cheese stays static. It’s still teeming with the beneficial microbes—bacteria, yeasts, and molds—that transformed it from pale, flavorless curd into rich, aromatic cheese. Because of this, the cheeses you buy will continue to grow and change in your refrigerator or on your counter, and how you store them affects how soon they develop off-flavors, undesirable textures, premature molding, or other issues that make them less delicious to eat. 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.

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? In our experience, these wraps—a piece of fabric coated with beeswax, resin, and jojoba oil—work okay for storing cheese when used correctly.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.