Now look, I’m not a cheese guy and I’ll admit it when pressed. It’s a taste thing. I don’t like to admit it because it often means I get the questions of, “How can you not like cheese?!?” and the statements, “Well, we can’t be friends.” It’s something I’ve grown to accept in my life — people come and go and the universe works in mysterious ways.
What’s not mysterious is that I recently came across some gorgeous (even if cheesy) graphics. And here at Infocarnivore, that’s not something we can ignore. The graphics are from a study using data from Google Trends on the most popular cheese in every state, based on the search interest. It was put together by Nina Teicholz, the author of The Big Fat Surprise, and her team.
Let’s go ahead and slice into some of the findings:
Now to me, there are only two kinds of cheese: white cheese and yellow cheese. That’s a joke — I’m fully aware that there are dozens if not hundreds of kinds. What this map shows is that each state has its preference on what kinds they’re looking for more than others. Parmigiano-Reggiano came in as the top by count of state at 8. I had a suspicion, but I wasn’t quite sure what that was, so I myself turned to Google. Turns out it’s parmesan. It would make sense that it would be the “big cheese” as it’s something that can be used in a variety of situations.
When it came to the second and third top cheeses, I was a little surprised. Stilton was number two (by count of state) and Muenster was tied for third along with Feta for number three. Again, I’m no cheese expert, but it’s my understanding that those are some stinky cheeses. Not sure why they’d be the leaders in so many states. Feta makes sense towards the top — I generally hear it’s a popular guy.
Another surprise for me was the lack of states searching for pepper jack cheese. I feel like about every menu item has it on there now. That’s a bit of an overstatement, but it does seem to be quite popular in the culinary world. Interestingly, mozzarella and cheddar only have two states as well, and I know that they are staples both at home and in restaurants.
So overall, parmesan reigns supreme and we all have to live under its rule. There are many different kinds of cheese out there and it was interesting to see how many types lead in only one state. What’s your favorite cheese and how does it line up to these results? For me, the answer is none of the above.