The Wisconsin Cheese Mart is a glorious quintessential Wisconsin shop!

I have been visiting this spot my entire life.

They’ve grown in the past few years and added a bar alongside the shop. This time we visited the shop only. It is located on Old World Third Street in downtown Milwaukee which is a great street to spend an afternoon! It is next to Mader’s, Usinger’s sausage, a handful of pubs and the scenic Milwaukee River.

The shop was founded in 1938 and is a wonderful part of Wisconsin history. They carry over 150 varieties of cheese that are made in Wisconsin!

Our favorites are their horseradish cheese, their chocolate cheese and their cheese curds.

If you are looking for true, authentic and delicious cheese curds, this is the place!

They are squeaky (a test of a good curd!), fresh and some of the best in the state. They come in a variety of flavors. We always get one pack of plain and one pack of flavored. You can usually try a few samples at the shop too! Yum!

Cheese makes great gifts! For many years my grandfather gave all of his grandchildren a box of assorted Wisconsin cheeses for Christmas. It was the best gift! I loved bringing a Wisconsin souvenir back up to Minnesota after the holidays.

Cheese makes a great gift because it can sit out at room temperature for much longer than you probably imagine:

• String, Blue Cheese and Cheese Curds can last without refrigeration for 8 hours.

• Vacuum Sealed Cheese can last outside of refrigeration for 5 DAYS!! (almost all of the clear packaged cheese there is vacuum sealed!)

• And this is crazy - the Wax Sealed cheese (like Jim’s cheese pictured above) can last without a refrigerator for 8 DAYS!!

Which makes it perfect for traveling, gifts and camping! I stocked up for the summer. You can also freeze cheese!

Wisconsin Cheese Mart sells and ships great gift baskets! They also sell a few other Wisconsin products like Sprecher root beer.

The boys loved all of the samples. We had a lot of fun and will be back soon!