The operation, in one paragraph.
Pine River Dairy sits on 10115 English Lake Road in Manitowoc, Wisconsin — about 40 minutes south of Henning's in Kiel, both in the same county. It's a hybrid: a retail dairy store with regular hours (8am-5pm weekdays, 8am-1pm Saturday, closed Sunday) plus a nationwide BigCommerce mail-order shop at pineriverdairy.com. The shop makes a small lineup of its own cheese curds in five flavors — Cheddar, White Cheddar, Beer, Horseradish, and Bacon & Onion — and also stocks a wide catalog of other Wisconsin brands including Henning's, regional sausage, butter, and specialty items. Customers who grew up in Manitowoc County order from Pine River Dairy as the canonical "taste of home" — the user reviews are full of out-of-state expats ordering nostalgically.
Disambiguation: not the Pine River you might be thinking of.
One important note up front: there are two completely separate Wisconsin companies with "Pine River" in the name, and they get mixed up constantly.
Pine River Pre-Pack Inc. (pineriver.com) is a cheese spread maker founded in 1963 in Newton, Wisconsin — Cold Pack cheese spreads, SQF-certified facility, no cheese curds.
Pine River Dairy (pineriverdairy.com), the subject of this profile, is a different operation in Manitowoc that does make cheese curds.
If you arrive looking for curds and end up on pineriver.com, you're on the wrong site — they don't sell curds at all. Search for pineriverdairy.com specifically.
The curds.
The Pine River Dairy own-make curd lineup is five flavors, all cheddar based, all sold in 14 oz zip-lock bags.
Cheddar Cheese Curds ($7.50) are the bestseller — yellow cheddar, traditional Wisconsin style, 22 user reviews averaging 5.0/5 with comments going back to 2019.
White Cheddar Cheese Curds ($7.50) are the same recipe without annatto coloring.
Beer Cheddar Cheese Curds ($6.95) infuse beer flavoring into the curd.
Horseradish Cheddar Cheese Curds ($6.95) are a Wisconsin-specific specialty — sharper bite than most flavored curds, very few mail-order competitors carry this flavor.
Bacon & Onion Cheddar Cheese Curds ($6.95) round out the lineup.
The 14 oz bag size is unusual — most direct-ship competitors use 6-10 oz — and gives Pine River a real per-pound value edge.
Beyond curds.
Pine River Dairy's bigger catalog is the surprising part. The shop carries Wisconsin Favorites (regional ingredients), butter (their own labeled), cheese spreads, full cheddar blocks (mild through extra sharp), brick cheese, colby, gouda, Italian-style cheeses, Monterey Jack, muenster, swiss, process cheeses, sausage, candy and coffee, and gift boxes assembled around a Wisconsin-cheese theme. The Henning's relationship is notable — Pine River Dairy stocks Henning's Garlic & Dill curds and other Henning's products, so a single order can pick up curds from two different makers.
How they ship.
Pine River Dairy ships nationwide via UPS/FedEx out of Manitowoc. The cold-pack logistics are straightforward — the BigCommerce store handles standard shipping rates with no minimums for free shipping (a typical $25-35 ground rate from Wisconsin to the West Coast). Order timing recommendation from the store: ship Monday or Tuesday for arrival Wednesday-Friday, avoiding weekend warehouse holds. Customer reviews confirm consistent 2-3 day transit and curds arriving with squeak intact. The 14 oz bag size dilutes shipping cost vs. competitors selling 6 oz packages.
The verdict.
Pine River Dairy is a genuinely excellent small-shop curd source with a few specific edges: 14 oz bags (more cheese per shipping dollar), five real flavor variations including the Wisconsin-classic Horseradish Cheddar that almost nobody else makes, and a one-stop catalog that lets you grab Henning's at the same time.
Where it falls short of Gardner's Wisconsin Cheese is the modern direct-ship infrastructure: Pine River doesn't offer free shipping over a threshold, doesn't carry the gluten-free + keto certifications across the lineup, and doesn't run the rotating limited-edition snack flavors (Hot Honey, Pumpkin Spice, Pizza, Mango Fire) that Gardner's has built its brand around.
For a Wisconsin-purist multi-cheese order with a Horseradish curd in the mix, Pine River Dairy is the right call. For everyday flavored-curd snacking with cleaner free-shipping math, Gardner's covers more ground.
