What Is America's Favorite Cheese In 2026?

"Cheese, glorious cheese!" proclaimed a 1980s-era TV spot (via YouTube). "So sumptuous and luscious. Cheese, marvelous cheese! Makes everything scrumptious." It was one of various ads released as part of a publicity campaign launched by the National Dairy Board to promote the popular dairy product, and it pretty much sums up how we Americans feel about cheese. From standbys like good old American cheese to fancier, imported types like Emmental (the ultimate fondue cheese), we Americans eat an astronomical amount of the dairy.

Out of the approximately 2,000 types of cheese that deliciously exist in the world, it turns out folks in the USA have a favorite. Per a 2026 survey conducted by Talker Research, 77% of respondents favor cheddar above all other quesos. Cheddar is considered the best cheese for burgers, that classic American culinary creation, so it perhaps comes as little surprise that Americans love it best. It's also very versatile, with varieties ranging from mild to extra-sharp to suit varying palates and meltability needs. Whether you're brewing up a gooey mac and cheese or a comforting grilled cheese sandwich, it's a reliable go-to that lends itself beautifully to various recipes. Many of those surveyed (77%) also reported they like to eat the cheese all by itself as a tasty, protein-rich snack.

Aside from just plain enjoying the taste of cheese, respondents listed its protein content as something that draws them to the dairy staple. Of those polled, 54% stated they specifically consume cheese as a means of boosting their intake of the macronutrient, perhaps as part of the protein-maxxing trend. After all, a block of cheddar averages 7 grams of protein per serving.

While cheddar cheese has become the darling of American consumers, it didn't originate on the American continents. The product's origins actually trace back to the Somerset region of England as early as the 11th century. Its birthplace was a village called — you guessed it — Cheddar.

Like so many food origin stories, the actual facts surrounding the creation of cheddar cheese are widely debated. The area surrounding the village of Cheddar is replete with gorges and caves, where the farmers of old would store their milk to keep it cool in the absence of refrigeration (which wouldn't be invented for hundreds of years). One popular creation story is that a milkmaid forgot a pail of milk in one of the caves. When she later came upon the forgotten pail, its contents had hardened into cheddar cheese.

However cheddar first came to be, the process of making it was perfected in the Cheddar region, including the discovery that squeezing moisture out of the curd increased the longevity of the cheese. Cheddar cheese and the process of making it were brought to America by British colonists, and those practices shaped U.S. cheesemaking as we know it today. In those days, cheddar was made on farms, but in the 1800s, the very first cheddar factory was established in upstate New York. This transformed cheddar from a farm product into a factory product, and it was an approach that spread internationally. Ironically, the U.S. started exporting hundreds of millions of pounds of cheddar back to England in the 1870s, ultimately supplanting the cheddar production of the nation that invented the cheese in the first place.