Looking back, the dawn of the cheese-cocktail era feels inevitable. After surviving the sugar-laced Sex and the City-inspired ’90s, when cocktails were more like quaffable cupcakes than adult beverages, we arrived at a more adult place. Since the turn of the millennium, classic cocktails — made with a little more flash and aplomb and definitely better ingredients than your grandfather’s Old Fashioned and Martinis — have dominated.
And in the last decade, cocktails have taken a turn toward the culinary. There are smoky drinks, fat-washed drinks and cocktails dominated by salad ingredients. But unlike some of the other Instagram-ready savory cocktail trends — think fish sauced-spiked milk punch and ham-infused bourbon — cheese-based drinks and spirits are often about a lot more than creating something pretty and yummy.
Leave it to the French to ferment an elegant liqueur from a sharp and salty sheep’s milk cheese aged in limestone caves, known everywhere by its dewy appearance, green mold veining and rich tang.
“It began when I was creating ideal pairings between classic French cheeses and my fruit spirits,” says Bernard Baud, president of Distillerie Massenez in Alsace, France. “I worked with Xavier Thuret, a gifted fromagerie. We created a pairing for several Michelin-starred restaurants where we would put a stick of Comté in a shooter and then pour our raspberry eau de vie over it. When we created one with a spoonful of Roquefort and a pear eau de vie, people went completely crazy. And I thought, ‘Let’s take it a step further.’”
The resulting spirit, Liqueur de Roquefort, took two years to design, test and perfect through a series of macerations, filtrations and infusions that are kept secret but include a lot of Roquefort, neutral alcohol and patience. “To me, it is a wonderful addition to the playground of mixology,” Baud says. “I selected Roquefort specifically because I see it as a flagship of French gastronomy. Linking our spirits with this cheese felt very exciting. We launched in the U.S. in 2023, and the response was outstanding. Chefs use it regularly, and in a cocktail with creme de cassis in whiskey, it is unlike anything you’ve tasted.”
The Roquefort liqueur does indeed add salinity, depth and deep umami notes to the not insignificant joy inherent in sipping whiskey cocktails. The experiment has been so well received, Distillerie Massenez is currently at work on a new line involving another classic French cheese: Comté. That liqueur is set to debut in 2026.
In a decidedly American twist on the concept of celebrating local agriculture and gastronomy, farmstead dairy and creamery TMK Creamery in Candby, OR, created a product they lovingly refer to as Cowcohol.
The brainchild of TMK’s co-owners Tessa and Todd Koch, the basic idea (“if I could just get these cows to make alcohol”) was marinating in their minds for years before Todd came across research being done at Oregon State University that explained how whey could be fermented and distilled into a spirit. After two years of experimentation, they successfully distilled a vodka from whey, the watery but lactose and mineral-rich liquid leftover from the cheesemaking process. The pair, who admit to being obsessed with the herd of “cowlebrities” they work with, were thrilled to find a completely novel product they could create from something they already had on hand.
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Non-alcoholic drinks have come into their own, but one crucial category is missing from the menuThe TMK vodka is noticeably smoother and creamier than other vodkas, with a texture that evokes the silkiness of ice cream without the weight and body. “When we learned it was possible, it felt like a no-brainer to us because we’ve been trying to eliminate waste and use and upcycle everything we can,” Todd says. “These cows are the stars of TMK, and any opportunity to showcase their hard work is something we jump at.”
Eliminating needless waste also inspired a food scientist and entrepreneur to embark on her own cheesy, boozy adventure. About one-third of the food produced in the United States is never eaten, comprising about 24% and 22% of landfilled and combusted municipal solid waste annually, according to the EPA. That food waste adds up, costing us billions in wasted food (about $218 billion annually, according to Recycle Track Systems) and producing the greenhouse gas equivalent of more than 42 coal-fired power plants annually.
And when milk is transformed into cheese, just 10% gets utilized, leaving 90% to be trashed or upcycled. So Emily Darchuk founded Wheyward Spirit to reroute whey from the waste bin to the bottle. “Keeping it in the food system and transforming it into a spirit felt like a way to not only create something people would enjoy but also inspire conversations and deeper thoughts about food waste,” Darchuk says. “I reached out to dairies in California, and they were thrilled to work with someone who wanted to upcycle their whey.”
She released her first bottle in 2020, and Wheyward’s partnership with California dairies enabled it to become the first alcoholic beverage that could use Real California Milk on its seal. And in 2023, Darchuk took her project a step further, releasing her rendition of whiskey — Wheyskey.
“I wanted to take the next step in the sustainable alcohol journey,” Darchuk says. “Everything, even the way we approach barrel-aging, is different. We’re going through a white oak crisis, so aging it in new barrels wasn’t an option. We recover used barrels and retest them so we get the same quality without the waste.”
That luxury and flavor-focused spin on the “waste not, want not” approach to upcycling with elegance is also inspiring mixologists. JR Rena, beverage director at Dirty Habit, says personal affection for an afternoon cheese plate paired with a glass of brandy and the desire to nix waste inspired a cocktail that has become a flagship for the Washington, D.C. bar and restaurant.
“I like to challenge the typical boundaries of what a cocktail can be,” Rena says. “Instead of discarding Parmigiano and cheddar rinds, I experimented and found that they lend themselves to infusions because of their concentrated flavors and umami characteristics.”
After a lot of experimentation, Rena developed a mix of Rakija brandy, Pedro Ximenez sherry, quince jam and cheese foam. “The Cheesy Grin is a marriage between sweet and savory elements,” he says. “Salt balances sugar. Salt from the cheese foam opens the palate, and the Rakija, Pedro Ximenez and quince dance in harmony.”
In the end, cocktail culture is primarily about pleasure. Eric Simmons, beverage director at Ginger’s in Dallas, says that guests immediately embraced the Fromage Noir, made with Colorado gin fat-washed with goat cheese.
“The profile of Woody Creek Distillers’ gin is light citrus and floral, which harmonizes perfectly with the creamy goat cheese,” Simmons says. “The inclusion of pear and baking spices completes the cocktail, which is surprisingly refreshing and light.”
Savory, flavorful cocktails don’t have to come with a halo of environmental responsibility or next-level terroir. But when they do, they’re even tastier — and sometimes, in a good way, cheesier.
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