Another cheese that is supposed to be great is 5 spoke Creamery but it was very expensive.

Regarding tablet K…. 15 years ago, I met R. Safra.
I asked him how H and H bagels East (on 2nd avenue, not the one on broadway) could serve Boars Head Ham and still be certified kosher. He told me it was OK because they wore gloves. That sounded ridiculous to me and I never relied on his hechsher again.

Plus, requiring that a kosher Jew handle the rennet is not simply “all the rage,” it’s pretty well established. (I was thumbing through the Kosherblog — thanks for the link — and found a chart tracing the history of chazal’s prohibition of “gevinat akum,” or cheese made by a non-Jew.) The Rama, way back in the sixteenth century, declared this the accepted custom.

On top of it all, even the Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly has recommended against the use of Tablet K. I suppose everyone’s in on this little canard?

PS. Ditto on the Sugar River- great stuff!

You missed Sugar River, a delicious gourmet kosher cheese from Wisconsin, formerly certified by the cRc, now by the OK. I am for the most part strictly vegetarian, but will occasionally buy this at Whole Foods as I am unable to find any decent kosher vegan soy-based cheese. The label indicates that Sugar River cheese (available in several flavors such as garlic basil Monterrey Jack) comes from small family farms and, like Tillamook, is rBGH-free.

Although the strict position on cheese is all the current rage, it most certainly was not always so, as is true for many currently held kashruth positions in Orthodoxy. Well-known poskim ate kraft cheese and jello in this country fifty years ago - my teacher was there to see it. Also, don’t forget there is a codified minority position held by some of the Tosafoth (including Rabbenu Tam) that cheese made with vegetarian rennet does not fall under the gezera. That would mean most cheese produced in this country would fall into that category - but you should specifically check the product before using this heter.

Barkanit’s imported Israeli goat cheeses (Tavor, Tilsit, Shahat, etc.): available at Fairway, Zabars, and often places like Whole Foods and other gourmet stores, though never cheap

Woolwich Dairy/sometimes marketed as Madame Chevre (www.woolwichdairy.com): A Canadian goat cheese producer, several of whose products are OU. Several others aren’t hechshered but are rennet-free (The website says which is which). The goat cheese logs are really good, and are consistently available (and cheap!) at Trader Joe’s.

Millers feta: I know, I know…. Every other Millers cheese I’ve had tastes like plastic. But their feta (OU, of course) is actually *really* good. Rumor has it they import it from outside the US.

Now I’m getting hungry….