There are various ways to categorize cheese - by age, texture or firmness, milk used and so forth. But what the connoisseur cares about most is the experience. Does it taste good? Does it have a fine flavor, a wonderful consistency, a delightful aroma? These characteristics are the result of a mixture of ingredients and processing and storage methods.

Mild cheeses have a delicate flavor, easy on the tongue. They may be a fresh cheese such as Le Roulé or Le Brin but more often they have been aged over 60 days. That firms them up more than a fresh cheese, but gives them enough spring and tang to delight the tongue. Fresh is more often used for a spread, while mild will be used as part of a sandwich or for a tasty snack.

An excellent mild is the Fleur Du Maquis, made in Corsica from the milk of Lacaune ewes, a type of sheep. Rubbery, but in the right sense, it is a first-rate addition to any fine table. Bouc Emissair is a great alternative. Hailing from Québec, this goat’s milk cheese is an impressive slab of mild, light chévre.

On the other end of the spectrum are the sharp cheeses that really wake up the palette. Tangy, full-flavored and often with a beautiful color, a sharp will keep your wits sharp and your tongue delighted.

Any natural sharp cheese will be aged over six months, though the process can be sped up artificially through the marvels of modern chemistry. It’s a rare connoisseur who could tell the difference. But whether from nature or the mind of a cheesemaker, these are the bold cheeses. Extra sharp will have been aged over nine months - some as long as ten years - and have the strongest flavor of all.

English cheeses are often of this type. West Country cheddar, for example, is a delightful choice. The Wensleydale is another. Pale, dry and crumbly, it makes for a great addition on a fine cracker. Or you may prefer a Bulgarian feta made from sheep’s milk. Tangy and with that afterbite that true cheese lovers look for in a sharp.

In between is a wide variety, sometimes called medium, other times more of a semi-soft or semi-firm. Within these classes are a never ending array of options.

There’s the Abbaye de Belloc still made by Benedictine monks in the fashion that originated with the abbey of Notre Dame de Belloc. Made with the milk of sheep raised in the French Pyrenees, it can stand proudly at the center of any table. Or, you may prefer the Amarelo from Portugal’s Beira Baixa. This yellow medium has all the tang and vigor of the people of that fine land.

Storage will have an effect on the final result, so take that into account when you select something from the spectrum of cheeses available. Storage at 33ºF (0.5ºC) will help preserve the original flavor and appearance, but cheese is best served at room temperature.

We may never know with certainty how cheese was first invented. Sometime at least 5,000 years ago some ancient affineur in Mesopotamia was either lucky or very innovative. At first, it was likely an accident that milk separated into curds (the solid part) and whey (the liquid part), and the curds then eaten or salted and preserved.

But the process really began in earnest with the arrival of the Romans. As their empire spread, they borrowed the local knowledge - as they had in so many places - and added to it. Larger Roman homes had entire rooms set aside for cheesemaking, developing it to a high art.

As the empire spread throughout Europe and the British Isles, so too did cheesemaking. Homer (circa 1184 BC) makes reference to cheeses made in the caves of Greece from sheep and goat’s milk. Aristotle (384-322 BC) comments on the cheese made from the milk of mares and jackasses.

France, late to the game, but unparalleled in artistic invention, now produce over 300 types of cheese. In the Middle Ages, their output was much simpler, but even then the monks were becoming a center of creation. Gorgonzola saw its first appearance around 879 AD, Roquefort in 1070 AD.

The Italians weren’t far behind, producing Parmesan (a kind of hard cheese) just prior to the end of the 16th century. Not for nothing is that city of the same name known as a center of wine and cheese.

The Swiss, when they were still known as the Helvetica tribes, developed their distinctive style using propionibacter shermani bacteria. It produces carbon dioxide bubbles, which causes the holes in Swiss cheese. The Netherlands developed Gouda around the end of the 17th century as cow’s milk became the preferred source of cheese.

Even by this late date cheese was still very much a small craftsman’s art. But with the coming of the Industrial Revolution it wasn’t just steel and rails that began to be mass produced. The first plant for producing cheese on a large scale was founded in Switzerland in 1815. The U.S. got into the act in a big way not long after.

In 1851 a dairy farmer named Jesse Williams created an assembly line for making cheese on his farm in Rome, New York. Williams brought cheesemaking firmly into the modern age. Taking milk from hundreds of nearby farms, he produced cheese in abundance.

By the 1860s rennet came into widespread use. An enzyme from calves stomaches that helps speed the transformation of the milk into curds, it wasn’t long before chemists manage to synthesize it. Today, especially since the ramp up from WWII, it is used the world over to produce huge quantities that are exported everywhere.

Though its history is ancient, the production of cheese - both industrial and as a personal craft - continues apace. There are more types to choose from than at any time in its 5,000 year lifespan.

Like fine wine, the making of a quality cheese requires a foundation of knowledge, years of practice and a certain amount of art. But one doesn’t need to be an affineur or cheesemaker to grasp the elementary steps of this delectable product.

All cheese is made from milk, but the variety is astounding. Though most commercial cheese today uses cow’s milk, it wasn’t always so. Even today there are many specialty cheeses made, as they were thousands of years ago, from goat’s milk, sheep’s milk or even the milk of horses. Buffalo’s milk has been used to make a certain kind of mozzarella.

Whatever forms the base, the basic process is essentially the same. Left to its own devices in heat, milk will sometimes curdle. That process can be helped along by vinegar or the addition of certain kinds of acid or acid-producing bacteria.

Often lactococci are used, sometimes lactobacilli or streptococci. Yes, who knew that something that gives humans a nasty disease could be used to create a fine cheese product? Swiss cheese uses a propionibacter shermani culture that produces carbon dioxide bubbles in the cheese, which makes its distinctive holes. The different bacteria used contribute heavily to the product’s final flavor.

The curdling process results in curds (the solid chunks) and whey (the liquid portion). Whey has been drunk for centuries and provides excellent nutrition. But the curds form the basis for cheese. Depending on which bacteria are used and exactly how the heating and pressing processes are performed at this point, different cheeses result.

Rennet is added causing the cheese to harden into a strong, rubbery gel for most types of cheeses. The proportion is varied, with less being used for fresh, soft cheeses and more for harder, longer-aged varieties.

The curds are separated from the whey in a collander-type device, then either moistened or dried. For cheeses that are intended to be very dry, or already contain excess moisture, the cheese may be set up high in a dryer, near ventilation. For more moist cheese, it may be set in a shed closer to the bottom, where the air is more dense with water.

After the initial drying process, the cheese is pressed into the desired shape often a ‘wheel’ - a large flat-sided donut shape for aging. At this point, the affineur enters the scene. Not a cheesemaker, per se, the affineur is an expert in taking the cheese at an early stage and aging it to perfection.

Much as a winemaker might get his grapes, or even the must, from someone else, then applying his knowledge, the expert affineur has vast experience turning ordinary cheese into a work of art.

This aging process may be as short as a few weeks, or as long as six months or more, depending on the type and style of cheese being matured. During this period it may be salted, have emulsifiers added or various other refining tasks applied.

The final result is then molded, stretched, chopped and/or washed to be consumed or marketed. A rind may develop naturally, or it can be applied in the form of wax to seal the cheese.

So, next time when you bite into one of those delicious chunks of yellow, white or bluish works of art give a thought to the artists who created it.

Cheese, to state the obvious, is a food product. That means that in order to enjoy it at peak flavor, it needs to be kept under the right conditions. For most cheeses, most of the time, that means storing it away from exposure to air and at a cold temperature.

That doesn’t necessarily mean storing it in a refrigerator, a good wine cellar might be appropriate in some cases. But for most people, the refrigerator is the most convenient and most effective means of storage. Keeping the cheese well sealed, and between 33°F-38°F (0.5°C-3.3°C), is optimal for almost all cheeses.

Softer cheeses, so-called fresh cheeses such as cottage or Mascarpone (a white Italian cheese) or Brie, are the most vulnerable. ‘Fresh’, in cheese circles, doesn’t mean unspoiled, per se. It refers, instead, to the relatively short aging period. Since they’re high in moisture, they spoil the most easily. Airborne mold spores combine more readily with food when they have water molecules to latch onto. But even stored correctly, they should be consumed with a few weeks at most, two weeks in most cases.

Even when inside a tightly sealed container, if they’ve been exposed to air at all, there’s typically enough oxygen inside to cause considerable spoilage of the surface. That spoilage can propagate to the interior to a degree. Even if that process doesn’t proceed very far, soft cheeses are harder to ‘fix’ by carving off mold spots or moldy surface areas than harder cheeses.

Harder or semi-firm cheeses will last 4-8 weeks if kept well-sealed and wrapped. It’s helpful if the wrapping is close to the cheese. That keeps air away from the surface that is inevitably trapped inside the container. Aged cheese can last longer, especially if it’s vacuum packed. Small commercial devices for vacuum sealing cheese and other foods are readily available.

Hard cheeses, such as Parmesan or Asiago (a crumbly Italian), can last a very long time but, if not frozen, after a couple of weeks they will lose flavor. When frozen they can be stored for up to about three months.

If you need long term storage in the freezer, be sure to transfer the cheese to the refrigerator for at least a few hours before bringing it out into the kitchen. The more gradual thawing process will help preserve the flavor and texture.

Other cheeses, such as Gouda or Cheddar, don’t react well when frozen, even if thawed properly. It’s best simply to refrigerate and consume before they spoil. That can be as long as three weeks if they’re kept properly. Processed cheddar will last a bit longer, but a gourmet cheese has a much shorter life span.

Left out in the room, even if covered, some cheeses will become oily, a result of fat molecules oozing out of the block as they melt. That can make for an interesting taste variation, but the process shouldn’t be allowed to go too far. Serving at room temperature is ideal for most cheeses though slicing is easier for slightly cold cheese. But after a few hours in air most will alter in undesirable ways.

Airborne spores are the primary cause of spoilage and they interact readily with cheese. Heat, per se, isn’t the culprit but it encourages most chemical reactions to speed up. So, keeping things stored and cooled will keep your cheeses optimal.