As New Year's Eve approaches, the catering orders are inevitably piling up. While cheese & charcuterie platters provide an excellent opportunity for mongers to get creative and showcase their styling skills, it's important to remember these tips that will impress your customers and their party guests:

VARIETY: Choose a cheese lineup that encompasses multiple styles, ages, and milk types. Triple cream cheeses are a classic NYE pairing with bubbles like Champagne and Prosecco, while Alpine cheeses like Gruyere and Beaufort are iconic seasonal cheeses that will transport your customers to the high altitude chalets of the Swiss mountaintops. Aged chèvre is always a hit, and don't forget the farmhouse Manchego or crystalline goat Gouda!

ACCESSIBILITY: Make sure each cheese is cut into relatively bite-sized pieces that are easy to grab and go, making the board more approachable for guests. Soft cheeses don't always need to be portioned, but you should provide a knife or spreader of some kind. Check out our Catering Cut Guide video for more information and examples!

PRESENTATION: It's essential to make sure everything on the board is edible. Use lots of color and a variety of seasonally appropriate pairings, including dried or fresh fruit, candied or raw nuts, crackers or bread, jams or honey, sliced charcuterie or pate, or any other products you know your customers will love. Garnish with fresh herbs, or edible or dried flowers. 

IDENTIFICATION: Using Formaticum Cheese Signs to label everything on the platter will help your guests identify what they're eating and make it easier to navigate the platter. (Pro tip: we can customize these signs with your logo and products, so you can save your hand from cramping and your Sharpie from running out of ink.)

Happy New Year, and here's to us all eating more cheese in 2024!

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The holidays are a busy time for cheesemongers as customers flock to their shops in search of the perfect cheese to add to their festive holiday boards. Offering a sample can make or break a sale, so here are some tried-and-true sampling techniques and tips from cheesemongers on our staff.

Doing both active and passive sampling will increase your chances of making the sale. 

Active sampling is when a freshly cut sample is offered during a direct interaction with a customer. Here are some tips for active sampling:

1. Never sample off the tip of a knife for safety reasons.

2. Always face (gently scrape) the cheese before cutting a sample to ensure that the customer is getting an accurate representation of the flavor, rather than the taste of plastic wrap. Similarly, always cut a piece for sale from the same side you sampled from. Alternate between sides of the working piece when cutting to order to ensure that one side does not dry out or grow mold faster than the other.

3. Include the rind of the cheese when necessary so that your customer can experience the nuances of the cheese's flavor as the cheesemaker and affineur intended. This is a great opportunity to talk to your customer about which rinds are edible and encourage them to try a rind they may have been hesitant about.

4. Make cuts that respect the integrity of the cheese and that won't impact the overall appearance of your working piece - maintain the rind to paste ratio and make sure that each customer receives the same amount of rind. 

5. If you are cutting a sample for one customer, offer samples to other customers who are waiting so that they feel included, as they might want a piece of what you are already cutting. This streamlines your work and keeps your customers in good spirits, and could lead to additional sales!

6. Create a "Push/Pin List" - focus on suggesting cheeses you want to push and sell more of, and also cheeses that you have a small amount left of and want to finish by the end of the day (so that you can put the "pin" away from the sign). This is a great way to promote certain cheeses and increase sales.

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Passive sampling is leaving a tray of samples on top of the counter for customers to try when they walk by or are waiting to order. This is a great opportunity for impulse buys that will raise your basket average. Here are some tips for passive sampling:

1. Leave small cut and wrapped pieces of the sample cheese on top of the counter near the samples to make it easy for customers to to grab and go if they like the cheese without having to stand in line.

2. Create composed bites with other products from your department, like jam, honey, nuts, or crackers, and include a cross-merchandised display of the suggested pairings. This not only enhances the sample but can also increase sales of these complementary products.

Use these sampling tips to help increase your sales this holiday season and make your customers' cheese shopping a fun and interactive experience!

Another way to add value to your customer interactions and raise basket averages is to cross-merchandise Formaticum retail products on top of the cheese counter or built into cheese displays. Customers who are buying several pieces of cheese may be interested in Cheese Storage Bags to keep them fresh if they are not consuming them immediately, while customers who are building cheese platters or boards for a party will likely be interested in our greaseproof Board Liners to add a touch of elegance to their presentation. Customers who are purchasing cheese as a gift might want to add a Cheese Log so that the recipient can keep track of the cheeses they've tasted. Quickly mentioning these products during a conversation could lead to an additional sale and a happier customer!

And of course, it's important to wrap each piece of cheese like a beautiful gift during the holiday season - browse our full selection of bulk wrapping materials to pick the one that's right for your shop. 

Reach out to wholesale@formaticum.com with any questions or comments. All retail items are available for next-day shipping on wholesale.formaticum.com. 

If a customer has ever said to you, "Wow, you're great at wrapping cheese! Will you wrap my Christmas presents?" then now is your time to shine behind the counter.  Wrapping your cheese elegantly and neatly in Formaticum cheese paper not only elevates the sales experience for the customer, but also preserves the freshness and flavor of your cheese, ensuring that your customers can experience the cheese in peak condition, even after days in their fridge.

We offer a variety of different materials to properly care for all types of cheese, from blue cheese to the most delicate of bloomy rinds. Check out our video below where we show you different techniques for wrapping different shapes of cheese in our cheese paper. We will also introduce you to our best-selling retail Cheese Storage Bags, so that you can provide your customers with the opportunity to have professional-quality cheese storage at home in a user-friendly bag format. 

Tips for wrapping cheese in paper:

1. Don't rush. We know the holidays can be busy and stressful, but taking the extra few seconds to wrap slowly and neatly and present them with an attractive piece will impress your customer. 

2. Choose the right size paper for your piece of cheese, and cut paper in half for smaller pieces instead of bunching it up under the sticker.

3. Make sure your folds are tight and angles are sharp. This will help you avoid unsightly creasing and wrapping your cheese tightly improves the performance of the paper. 

4. Always place your sticker or scale tag on a flat surface, and avoid putting the barcode on an angle. 

Wrapping cheese beautiful and effectively is a great way to honor the work of farmers, cheesemakers, affineurs, and everyone in between. Show us your wrap skills by posting a video and tagging us @formaticum on Instagram and TikTok and we will share your video! 

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