The Best Ready to Serve Cheeseboards
Ready to Serve Cheeseboards
It’s safe to assume Cheese Professor readers enjoy assembling a thoughtfully curated, composed cheeseboard for guests, for any occasion or no occasion at all. Making a cheeseboard, even just for yourself, is an act of love. Let’s be real, though. Around the holidays, occasions that require acts of love, culinary or otherwise, are many and frequent. Since one should never have to choose between cheese and not-cheese, if your acts-of-love tank is dwindling, there is an easier way. Many of your favorite local cheesemakers or gourmet retailers offer catering, subscription or gift boxes for door-to-door cheese, to start. Additionally, brands such as Curd Box, AppyHour, and Harry & David also offer curated cheese and accompaniment kits with national distribution.
But there is an easier way, without resorting to sad, supermarket cheese trays. One that only requires one step from you — unwrapping — and also spares you from the abundant leftovers of items you only wanted small quantities of for your high-concept board. If you could use a break from planning, shopping, designing, slicing, dicing, and assembling during the holiday crush, here are five brands that offer ready-to-eat cheeseboards that are worthy of serving to your guests, or yourself.
Boarderie Large Christmas Board
Founded in 2021, and with funding secured on “Shark Tank,” Boarderie even caught the attention of Oprah for her annual “favorite things” roundup. Boarderie offers fully arranged cheese, charcuterie and even dessert boards that are ready-to-eat and ready-to-ship. Ranging from small, classic selections for two, to themed and expansive spreads to feed a crowd, Boarderie’s composed boards feature bamboo compartments for keeping like elements with like, and preventing naturally moist items from adulterating things that don’t benefit from prolonged contact with moisture. The only requirement from you is to unwrap the individual compartments, boxes of crackers, and serving tools. Boarderie’s spreads range from about $139 to $249, and ship overnight.
The cheeses and charcuterie lean conventional, but elevated - think Merlot Pecorino, Apple Smoked Cheddar, and Fig & Rose Goat Cheese, but are therefore appropriate for most palates. Accoutrements include usual suspects like dried fruit and candied nuts, but also creative elements such as crystallized Thai ginger, chocolate prosecco cordials, and tangerine and chili marinated green olives. Thematic boards are available for various occasions, and board design can include messages for birthdays, holidays, sympathy, or congratulations. Holiday boards feature shapes like gingerbread men and candy canes, and Boarderie also offers no meat board options, and other holiday fixes like large, baked bries that are styled with various accompaniments and are ready for the oven. Boards serve 2-14 people and range from $139 - $249.
Murray’s Holiday Composed Board
America’s largest cheese retailer has many ways to serve your cheeseboard needs this holiday season. First, you can simply buy whatever cheese and accoutrements you want for nationwide shipping, or you can select one of their curated gift boxes: available in themes such as Greatest Hits, Rare Finds, and other regionally inspired collections. It must also be said that you’d be well stocked and ready-to-board this holiday season by acquiring their seasonal, 12 Days of Cheese calendar.
Murray’s also offers assembled, ready-to-eat boards similar to Boarderie, with selections that often feature artisanal producers. While most of these cheeses in Murray’s composed boards come whole, they are nonetheless pre-staged for easy serving: simply unwrap and go. Like their gift boxes, Murray’s boards come in various themes. Evergreen boards are available such as Timeless Classics, featuring elevated versions of crowd-friendly cheeses like manchego, cheddar, gouda, and chèvre, and Passport to France, featuring Murray’s Delice, Bleu d’Auvergne, Comté, and Bucheron.
For the holiday season, consider their Winter Indulgence board, which may come with camembert, Jasper Hill Winnemere, and Grafton Truffle Cheddar, and Holiday Party, with especially celebratory selections like Jasper Hill Harbison, truffle gouda, Cabra Romero, and Roth Canela, with its cinnamon and paprika-treated rind. Accoutrements for each selection are also on-theme, in keeping with Murray’s elevated vibe. To feed between two and 15 people, Murray’s composed boards range from $130 to $250.
Graze Craze Holiday Board
Graze Craze is essentially a catering franchise for party enthusiasts and snack lovers, with locations across the country. (And in Canada, Australia, and France.) With small and large options to feed up to 20, the cheeses are more conventional than not, with familiar accompaniments, and the maximalist board styling is exactly what you’d probably achieve yourself…given a spare few hours for slicing and arranging, however. (It’s the holidays: give yourself the gift of a few spare hours not spent in service to hosting.)
Holiday-styled boards from Graze Craze include seasonal components such as thick slices of candied ham, and white chocolate peppermint bark, among more typical options like fruits, veggies, olives, etc. The rosemary “wreath” in the center of the large holiday board is also a nice, festive touch.
While you’re making your life easier in the cheeseboard department, Graze Craze also offers sandwich trays, brunch trays, and individually portioned “Grazer” boards and “Char-cutie-cups.” Single serving cups are $9, has a huge selection of small, medium and large trays. The largest premium board serves up to 20 top out at about $275.
Costco Luxe Bites
Most supermarket cheese trays are what we’d typically file under the “sad” column, with questionable cubes of pepper jack and conventional cheddar. (Who are we kidding? We still like those.) Costco isn’t a typical supermarket, however, and inspires fandom with many of its products and services. Where else can you acquire an entire wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano, for example?
Costco’s composed charcuterie board offerings also deliver at a higher level than most supermarkets. For a deluxe, holiday selection, their Luxe Bites Sweet and Savory Ready-to-Eat Charcuterie Board is stacked with options for all of your guests. Neat rows of sausage and cheeses such as aged cheddar and truffle pecorino are accompanied by dried fruit, nuts, pickles, and jams. The sweet element also goes well beyond the usual cheeseboard suspects, with macarons, sea salt caramels, rugelach, lemon cake bites, and more. A large Luxe Bites Sweet and Savory Ready-to-Eat Charcuterie Board that serves 12-15 costs $209. A smaller collection that serves 6-8 , without the board but with detailed instructions for assembling costs $109.
Wine Country Gift Baskets Gather & Savor board
At first glance, California’s Wine Country Gift Baskets seems to be exactly that: gift baskets, many of which also feature cheese, charcuterie, and other elements from which a party-worthy cheeseboard could easily be assembled. (It also stands to note, given the name, that they also make for excellent gifts.) However the brand also offers ready-to-eat selections as well. Several Boarderie-branded boards are available through the site, sometimes at a discount, and they also assemble some bespoke boards featuring a quality selection of artisanal-leaning products.
Wine Country Gift Basket’s Gather & Savor Charcuterie Board, for example, features Marieke Gouda, Mitica Drunken Goat, Sierra Nevada Hatch Chile Jack, and, by the look of the photo, Laura Chenel Orange Blossom Honey chèvre. Nuts, fruit, and spreads also accompany the robust cheese and charcuterie selection, as well as a nice complement of various chocolates. Prepared boards range in price from about $99.95 to $395, with discounts offered on several selections.