What a churn on

In Rajasthan, camel-milk halloumi. In Arunachal Pradesh, yak-milk cheddar. In Gujarat, sheep-milk manchego. In Chennai, a brie-style cheese made right on the farm. Small dairies and herders are joining India’s cheese story. Put the imported parm back, we've got this

- Anisha Menezes

The first time Arpan Kalotra and Bhimsinh Ghanghal tasted feta, they spat it out.

Surely this crumbly, smelly thing couldn't have come from something as wholesome as milk? It was 2021, and the goat and sheep herders from Gujarat’s Maldhari community had learnt how to make cheese from Namrata Sundaresan, a Chennai-based cheesemaker, as part of a nationwide programme aimed to boost pastoral people's livelihoods. But that first bite? They were pretty sceptical.

They slowly came around. Kalotra and Ghanghal set up Panchal Dairy in 2022, procuring milk from local herds and turning it into familiar chevre and feta alongside more exotic sheep ricotta and Manchego. Sundaresan says they not only proudly present their artisanal creations at food events now, but “at home, they enjoy bajra rotis with goat cheese and garlic chutney”.

Up until recently, India’s cheese story was so straightforward, you could grate it on a slice of white bread. Processed cheese was either salty yellow blocks of Amul; small players making burrata and parmesan; or mass-market brands churning out mozzarella and mascarpone. It's only in the last few years that we've started to get serious, with pastoral cheese (made from milk procured from nomadic herders) and farmstead cheese (produced at the farm where the animal is milked).

We now have sheep, goat and camel milk cheese in Gujarat and Rajasthan, yak milk cheese in Arunachal Pradesh, buffalo and cow milk cheese from Tamil Nadu. It's all a little new, a little tricky - mostly sold by individual dairies online or within the region. But it’s giving us the first taste of how India's varied landscape and livestock is shaping cheese now.