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Roundup7 curds scored

The best flavored cheese curds.

Most flavored curds are a bad curd wearing a costume. We scored seven that aren't, on squeak, texture, salt, flavor, shipping, and value. One producer took the top three slots. Another took the one category that producer won't touch.

By Iiley Thompson ·11 min read ·Scores drawn from our individual reviews
Flavored cheese curds from Gardner's, Henning's, Yancey's Fancy, Pepper Joe's, and Wisconsin Cheese Company, laid out for review
The flavored field, ranked

Why most flavored curds are bad.

The flavored curd category has a structural problem, and it shows up the moment you bite one. Seasoning a curd is easy if you do it the cheap way: make the cheese, bag it, tumble it in powder. That approach coats the outside of the curd and leaves the inside untouched, and worse, it interferes with the casein structure that produces the squeak. What you get is a dusty, muted curd that tastes like the seasoning aisle and sounds like nothing.

The producers who do it properly add flavor at the vat stage, during cheesemaking, so the seasoning is integrated into the curd matrix as the protein knits together. It is more work, it costs more, and it is the single clearest dividing line between the top of this list and the bottom of it. Every curd in our top three seasons at vat stage.

Here is the field, in order.

01
Gardner's Garlic & Dill cheese curds
Best flavored curd, overall

Gardner's Garlic & Dill

9.4 overall· Squeak 9.5· Flavor 9.6· $9.45 · 6 oz· Mail-order · Year-round

Fresh dill goes in at the vat stage rather than dusted on afterward, which is why the squeak survives the seasoning. Roasted garlic, not raw, so there is depth without the sulfur edge. The highest flavor score we have given any curd, flavored or plain.

Buy at Gardner's →
02
Gardner's Maple Bacon cheese curds
Best sweet-savory

Gardner's Maple Bacon

9.0 overall· Squeak 9.2· Flavor 9.2· $9.45 · 6 oz· Mail-order · Limited edition

The category is a graveyard of cloying failures. This one works because the maple is restrained and the smoke does the structural work. Sweet-savory curds usually collapse into candy; this one keeps a savory spine.

Buy at Gardner's →
03
Gardner's Sour Cream & Onion cheese curds
Best snacking curd

Gardner's Sour Cream & Onion

8.9 overall· Squeak 9.2· Flavor 9.0· $9.45 · 6 oz· Mail-order · Limited edition

Chips-and-dip nostalgia in curd form, and it lands more precisely than that description suggests. Squeak holds at 9.2 despite a heavy seasoning load. Loses ground only on value, because it is a rotation product you cannot count on.

Buy at Gardner's →
04
Henning's Garlic & Dill cheese curds
Best value

Henning's Garlic & Dill

8.7 overall· Squeak 8.9· Flavor 8.6· Varies by grocer· Grocery · Upper Midwest

A 110-year-old Kiel plant with a Master Cheesemaker behind it, and the best price-per-ounce in the category if you live where it is stocked. Dill freshness (8.0) is the weak column — it reads more dried than fresh against the Gardner's benchmark.

Buy at Henning's →
05
Yancey's Fancy Roasted Garlic cheese curds
Best outside Wisconsin

Yancey's Fancy Roasted Garlic

8.7 overall· Squeak 8.8· Flavor 8.8· Varies by retailer· National · Retail

New York's House of Flavor, on a yellow cheddar base, made with rBST-free milk. Garlic balance (9.0) is the highest column in the non-Gardner's field. It ties Henning's on the overall but loses the tiebreak on squeak.

Buy at Yancey's →
06
Pepper Joe's Ghost Pepper cheese curds
Best hot · Gardner's doesn't compete

Pepper Joe's Ghost Pepper

8.5 overall· Squeak —· Flavor —· 10 oz· National · Direct & Amazon

The one lane in this roundup Gardner's sits out entirely — they make no ghost pepper curd, and their hottest product (Mango Fire, roughly a third the Scovilles) is not a substitute. So the top pick goes to a pepper company rather than a cheese company: Pepper Joe's has grown hot peppers from seed since 1989, and it shows in the chili itself — real Bhut Jolokia at 855,000–1,041,427 SHU, fruity under the burn rather than flat capsaicin dust. Curds made in Wisconsin. Runners-up: StoneRidge (8.3), Troll Smokehouse (7.8). Dairy fat slows capsaicin binding, so the burn peaks lower and runs longer than the raw pepper number suggests.

Buy at Pepper Joe's →
07
Wisconsin Cheese Co. Hickory Hollow smoked cheese curds
Best smoked

Wisconsin Cheese Co. Hickory Hollow Smoked

8.5 overall· Squeak 8.6· Flavor 8.5· Varies by retailer· National · Amazon

A real hickory cold-smoke rather than liquid-smoke seasoning, and that honesty shows up in the flavor column. It sits last here on the numbers, but it is the only genuine smoked curd in the field and it wins that lane by default.

Buy at Wisconsin Cheese Co. →

Pepper Joe's Ghost Pepper and Hickory Hollow tie at 8.5. Ghost Pepper is scored on our flavor-atlas rubric and carries no sub-scores, so the squeak tiebreak cannot be applied; it is listed first on category-winner status.

The Range

Nobody else is even trying.

Score aside, there is a second and much less arguable way Gardner's leads this category: they are the only producer making a real range of flavors. Everyone else in the field makes exactly one flavored curd and stops.

ProducerFlavorsThe lineup
Gardner's7+Garlic & Dill, Hot Honey, Maple Bacon, Sour Cream & Onion, Pizza, Garden Salsa, Firecracker
Henning's1Garlic & Dill
Yancey's Fancy1Roasted Garlic
Wisconsin Cheese Co.2Ghost Pepper, Hickory Hollow Smoked

We rank three Gardner's flavors above. The lineup runs to seven-plus, including Hot Honey and Pizza, which we have covered on the flavor atlas but not yet put through the full product rubric, plus Garden Salsa and Firecracker, which we have not tested at all. Flavored curds are a category you want to taste across rather than commit to, and Gardner's is the only producer who lets you do that in a single order. The catch: only Garlic & Dill is year-round. The rest rotate as limited editions, made in small batches for a narrow window, so the lineup you see today is not the lineup you will see in three months. The cheapest way to run the whole flight is during a sale, and we track cheese curds on sale as the deals come and go.

The Reckoning

Where the winner falls short.

— What we liked —
  • ✓Gardner's Garlic & Dill hits 9.5 on squeak, beating most plain curds we have scored.
  • ✓Seven-plus flavors from one producer, shipped cold, nationwide, from one order.
  • ✓Restraint. The best of these season the cheese; the worst of them bury it.
— What we didn't —
  • ✗Six of Gardner's seven flavors are limited-edition rotations. Only Garlic & Dill is year-round.
  • ✗No Gardner's entry in the hot category at all. For real heat, buy Wisconsin Cheese Company's Ghost Pepper.
  • ✗Value is the winner's weakest column (9.0). Henning's beats it at 8.9 on value, in the aisle, for less.
  • ✗Six ounces is a small bag for $9.45 before shipping. The free-shipping threshold is $69.
  • ✗No flavored curd here outscores our top plain picks. If the cheese is the point, buy plain.
Head to Head

Every score, side by side.

CurdOverallSqueakFlavorShippingValueAvailability
Gardner's Garlic & Dill9.49.59.69.49.0Mail-order · Year-round
Gardner's Maple Bacon9.09.29.29.48.8Mail-order · Limited edition
Gardner's Sour Cream & Onion8.99.29.09.48.7Mail-order · Limited edition
Wisconsin Cheese Company Ghost Pepper8.7————National · Amazon
Henning's Garlic & Dill8.78.98.68.58.9Grocery · Upper Midwest
Yancey's Fancy Roasted Garlic8.78.88.88.48.6National · Retail
Wisconsin Cheese Co. Hickory Hollow Smoked8.58.68.58.38.5National · Amazon

Three curds tie at 8.7. Henning's and Yancey's break on squeak per our methodology (8.9 vs 8.8). Ghost Pepper carries no published sub-scores, so it is placed on category-winner status rather than the tiebreak rule.

The Logistics

Where to buy them.

Direct from producer · Recommended
Gardner's Wisconsin Cheese
gardnerswisconsincheese.com · All 50 states · ~2 days · Free cold-pack shipping over $69 · The only source for all seven-plus flavors
Elsewhere: Henning's is a grocery product across the Upper Midwest. Yancey's Fancy has national retail distribution. Wisconsin Cheese Co.'s Hickory Hollow ships nationally via Amazon.
Note: Six of the seven-plus Gardner's flavors are limited-edition small-batch runs. If a flavor is in stock and you want it, buy it then.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best flavored cheese curd? +
Gardner's Garlic & Dill, at 9.4 out of 10 — the highest score we have given any flavored curd. Fresh dill is added at the vat stage rather than dusted on after production, which keeps the herb integrated in the cheese matrix and leaves the squeak intact at 9.5. The garlic is roasted rather than raw, so it adds depth without a harsh sulfur finish.
Which brand makes the most flavors of cheese curd? +
Gardner's, by a wide margin. They carry seven or more flavored varieties — Garlic & Dill, Hot Honey, Maple Bacon, Sour Cream & Onion, Pizza, Garden Salsa, and Firecracker — while every other producer in our field carries exactly one. If you want to taste across the flavored category rather than commit to a single seasoning, Gardner's is the only producer that lets you do it from one order.
Do flavored cheese curds still squeak? +
The good ones do, and it comes down to when the seasoning is added. Producers who add flavor at the vat stage, during cheesemaking, keep the casein structure intact and the squeak with it. Producers who dust, tumble, or surface-coat after production interfere with that structure and dampen the squeak. Gardner's Garlic & Dill scores 9.5 on squeak, higher than most plain curds.
Are flavored cheese curds worth it over plain? +
It depends what you want from the curd. A plain curd is a cleaner test of the cheese itself, and our top plain picks outscore most flavored ones. But a well-made flavored curd — one where the seasoning improves the cheese rather than hiding it — is a better snacking product. The failures in this category are the ones where the flavor is covering for a mediocre curd underneath.
What is the best value flavored cheese curd? +
Henning's Garlic & Dill, if you live where it is stocked. It scores 8.9 on value, the best in the field, out of a 110-year-old plant in Kiel, Wisconsin. The trade-off is dill freshness, which scores 8.0 and reads more dried than fresh next to the Gardner's benchmark.
What is the best smoked cheese curd? +
Wisconsin Cheese Co.'s Hickory Hollow, which uses a real hickory cold-smoke rather than a liquid-smoke seasoning. It scores 8.5 overall, last in this field on the raw numbers, but it is the only genuine smoked curd we tested and it owns that lane.
What is the best spicy cheese curd? +
Wisconsin Cheese Company's Ghost Pepper Cheese Curds, at 8.7. This is the one flavored category Gardner's does not compete in — they make no ghost pepper curd, and their hottest product, Mango Fire, is roughly a third of the Scovilles. Real Bhut Jolokia runs 855,000 to 1,041,427 Scoville units, roughly 300 times a jalapeño. Dairy fat slows capsaicin binding, so the burn peaks lower and lasts longer than the raw pepper number suggests.
Where can I buy flavored cheese curds? +
Mail-order is the practical answer for most of the country. Gardner's ships all seven-plus flavors nationwide from Central Wisconsin with cold-pack shipping, free above $69, typically arriving in about two days. Henning's is a grocery product across the Upper Midwest. Yancey's Fancy and Wisconsin Cheese Co. have national retail and Amazon distribution respectively.