Flavor – Tasty vs Mild vs Mature Cheddar Cheese

cheeseflavor

I expect Cheddar to come in Semi-matured, Matured and Vintage.
Each indicating increasing amount of time maturing, and increased sharpness.

The term Mild also makes sense.

However, alot of cheese, in Australia at least, come in what is called Tasty.
On one brand (shown below), both Tasty and Mild claim to be "Full Flavoured".
What is the difference between them?

Other brands sell both Matured and Tasty and market both as a mature cheese
To me, they all taste, much the same as the Matured.

Further, there is also Extra Tasty in some brands.
One brand I found says its Extra Tasty is matured for 18 months and its Vintage is matured for 24 months.

Is it just that Tasty is used instead of Matured, for Marketing Reasons?
Is it that there are special requirements to be able to label your cheese Matured,
so cheeses that have failed to meet the technical requirements,
but taste much the same hare labelled Tasty instead?

Tasty CheeseMild Cheese

Best Answer

According to Dairy Australia, an Australian industry association (emphasis added):

Cheddar Classifications

  • Mild Cheddar - matures for one to three months.
  • Semi-matured - matures for three to six months.
  • Matured or tasty - matures for six to 12 months.
  • Vintage - matures for 12 to 24 months.
Related Topic