Franche-Comté · France
Comté.
Comté's crystalline bite melts into waves of toasted hazelnut and honeyed caramel, with subtle whispers of alpine hay and floral meadow grass. Its dense, butterscotch-colored paste shatters pleasantly on the tongue, releasing notes of dried fruit and warm toast that linger long after. The aroma carries the gentle funk of mountain pasture—earthy, complex, never sharp.
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The story
How it's made.
Why it tastes that way.
Comté has been produced in the Jura mountains since the Middle Ages, when village communities pooled their milk in 'fruitières' (co-operative dairies) to make wheels large enough for aging — each 40 kg wheel requires approximately 400 liters of milk. The cheese received its AOC in 1958.
Strict specifications require at least one hectare of pasture per cow, forbid silage feeding, and mandate affinage of at least four months. The Comité Interprofessionnel du Gruyère de Comté grades every wheel with a score from 0–20, and only wheels scoring above 12 may be sold as Comté; those scoring 15+ earn the brown bell label.
Production · spec
- Milk
- Cow · raw
- Family
- Alpine
- Rind
- natural
- Age
Tasting profile
What it tastes like.
Caseo's flavour axes are calibrated against reference cheeses. This is Comté's fingerprint.
Aroma
Nutrition · per 100g serving
What's in a wedge.
A 100g serving — about a finger-thick wedge. Daily values use the FDA 2020 reference of 2,000 kcal. Expect ±5% variation between wheels.
Estimated values — based on similar cheese family data
Pairings · Caseo curated
What goes with Comté.
27 pairings across 8 categories.
Wine
Beer & Cider
Where to find it
Cheese counters.
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