I love an advent calendar and I love cheese, so obviously I bought the Ilchester Cheese advent calendar from Sam’s.

All of the cheeses were sampled with either a Ritz cracker or an Everything but the Bagel cracker from Trader Joe’s, because we are fancy.

1, 6, 13, 18 Cheddar - YUM! Cheddar is one of my favorite cheeses so started out strong with a favorite

2, 7, 14, 19, Applewood Smoked Cheddar - way too much fake smoke flavor, it was unpleasant

3, 8, 15, 20 Red Leicester - another good one, creamy and nice

4, 16 Double Gloucester - delightful

5, 17 Mexicana Cheddar - kind of like solid queso, but a little too spicy for me

9, 21 Applewood Vintage - basically the same as Applewood smoked and I’m not a fan

10, 22 Vintage Cheddar - cheddar is always a win for me

11, 23 Aged Red Leicester - nice and creamy like the regular Red Leicester, but a touch deeper flavor

12, 24 Cheddar Cheese with Apple, Sage, & Onion - good, but maybe too much flavor all at once. It was slightly overpowering.

Nine total flavors of cheese, with at least two samples of each flavor. I love cheddar cheese so all the cheddars were my favorite, and honestly the Red Leicester and Double Gloucester are similar enough to cheddar that I love those too. Of the “fancy” flavors my favorite Cheddar Cheese with Apple, Sage, & Onion, but I still prefer a plain cheese or something with fewer flavors all together. My least favorites were the smoked ones. I am not a fan of smoked cheese. Smoked meat, sure thing, smoked cheese, pass.

I love a consumable advent calendar and sometimes you need a break from chocolate shapes. This was fun and I’d try something similar to it again next year.

What is your favorite type of advent calendar? Let us know in the comments.