This Ohio Cheese Factory In Amish Country Makes The State’s Best Butter Cheese
Nestled in the rolling hills of Ohio’s Amish Country sits a cheese-making treasure that locals can’t stop raving about.
Guggisberg Cheese Factory has been crafting delicious dairy products for generations, winning awards and loyal customers with their special recipes and traditional methods.
While they offer many varieties that keep visitors coming back, their butter cheese stands out as a creamy masterpiece that many consider the best in the entire state.
1. Where Clock Towers Meet Dairy Mastery
Guggisberg Cheese occupies a distinctive Swiss-inspired building in Millersburg, complete with a clock tower visible across Holmes County’s rolling farmland. The architecture alone signals something beyond typical roadside commerce, this establishment serves as destination rather than convenient stopover for travelers navigating Ohio’s Amish Country.
License plates from across Ohio and neighboring states regularly fill the parking lot, evidence that exceptional dairy products justify considerable drives through winding country roads. The approach through picturesque farmland builds anticipation before the Alpine-style structure emerges around the final curve.
2. Baby Swiss Built a National Reputation
The signature Baby Swiss cheese has earned Guggisberg national recognition and numerous awards over decades of production.
Unlike traditional Swiss with large characteristic holes, this variety features smaller “eyes” and delivers creamier, milder flavor profiles appealing to broader palates. Subtle nutty notes and buttery finish make it versatile enough for everyday sandwiches yet sophisticated for entertaining.
Beyond the flagship product, traditional Swiss offers more pronounced flavor with classic larger holes, while Lacey Swiss presents yet another variation with its own distinctive character. Each represents different aging processes and bacterial cultures transforming identical starting ingredients into distinct final products.
3. The Butter Cheese Nobody Stops Talking About
While Baby Swiss attracts initial attention, locals consistently cite the butter cheese as reason enough for repeated pilgrimages. This semi-soft variety delivers rich, creamy texture with flavor matching its name, distinctly buttery in ways that make it irresistible on crackers or melted into hot preparations.
Many Ohioans consider it the state’s finest, a bold claim in dairy-proud territory that proves difficult to dispute after tasting.
The cheese selection extends through multiple cheddars ranging from mild to aggressively sharp, including smoked variations. Colby and Colby Jack options provide mellower alternatives for those preferring less assertive profiles.
4. Generations of Cheese-Making Expertise
The Miller family has been crafting butter cheese for over five generations, passing down closely guarded recipes since 1887. Their dedication to quality shows in every bite of their signature product.
Walking through their modest factory, visitors can watch master cheesemakers hand-turning curds using tools that haven’t changed in a century. The Millers believe this commitment to tradition is what gives their butter cheese its distinctive flavor profile.
Unlike commercial operations, they age their cheese in natural limestone caves beneath the property, where temperature and humidity create perfect aging conditions. This patient process results in butter cheese with notes of sweet cream and a melt-in-your-mouth texture that’s impossible to replicate.
5. Farm-to-Table Milk Supply
Morning dew still clings to grass as Jersey cows graze freely across verdant pastures surrounding the factory. These pampered animals produce exceptionally rich milk with higher butterfat content, the secret ingredient behind the factory’s famous butter cheese.
Local farmers deliver fresh milk daily, often arriving by horse-drawn wagon in keeping with Amish traditions. Nothing goes to waste here; whey byproducts feed nearby farm animals, creating a sustainable loop.
Seasonal variations in the cows’ diet subtly influence each batch of cheese. Spring butter cheese develops grassy notes from fresh clover, while autumn batches carry hints of the sweet hay that sustains the herd through winter months.
6. Award-Winning Flavors Worth the Journey
Lines form before sunrise outside this unassuming factory store as visitors compete for limited daily batches. The classic butter cheese remains their bestseller, but seasonal varieties infused with local herbs or maple have earned national recognition too.
Food critics from major publications have made the pilgrimage to this remote corner of Ohio, helping spread word beyond state lines. Their original butter cheese has claimed blue ribbons at state fairs for twelve consecutive years, beating out corporate competitors with massive marketing budgets.
Sampling is encouraged, with friendly staff explaining the nuances between aged varieties. Many visitors leave with coolers packed full, knowing they’ve discovered something truly special in these hills.
