HOW WE SHIP OUR CHEESE


All perishable packages are shipped via UPS or FedEx for expedited arrival, spending no more than 2 days in transit.

Shipping speeds and the number of ice packs included in each box are adjusted seasonally to account for higher temperatures during the summer months.

When Will My Order Ship?

This is our most frequently asked question. Our fulfillment team is composed of staff who are also making cheese, working with our distribution partners, or helping with Cellars operations for most of their time. Because we’re a small crew and wear many hats, our fulfillment only takes place once a week on Tuesdays. This means that orders placed between Monday through Sunday will ship out the following Tuesday for delivery between Wednesday through Friday. Most customers will see their order within two days of shipping. On rarer occasions, shipping can take three days.

There are always certain circumstances that may shift this or have us fulfilling your order on a different day, but by and large, this is the shipping timeframe we stick to. If you have concerns about your orders delivery timeline, we recommend that your reply to your order confirmation email or email info@jasperhillfarm.com and share details about your concerns with our friendly customer service team. We will always try our best to accommodate special handling needs when we are able.

Noticing Some Changes?

Back in the fall, we took a much more streamlined approach to eCommerce due to rising costs. Our single-item ordering was removed and we pared down our offerings to a small set of curated collections.

We received a great deal of feedback that our customers were missing the ability to customize their orders with individual items. We listened and worked out the system kinks and found a way to make this work for our online shoppers as well as our small team.

This has led to some necessary changes to make our mail-order program sustainable. Due to the rising costs over the past three years, our offering of free shipping for orders over a $99 price point was no longer viable. Shipping cheese at expedited speeds to ensure it arrives to you in great shape is expensive! We still want to make shipping rates reasonable for our customers to be able to source outrageously delicious cheese direct from the farm. We apologize for any inconvenience our changes in shipping policies may cause.

For order support or to inquire about holiday volume giving, please contact us.

About Our Packaging

Scroll down for Shipping & Cheese FAQ

Please Note: some gift orders may arrive in an alternative all-white box decorated with a custom-illustrated Jasper Hill Farm crest decal, in lieu of our classic blue-and-white packaging. All boxes will still be insulated with our signature ‘Sylvacurl’ wood fluff and packed carefully by our team to maintain that ‘wow-factor’ upon unpacking!

SIGNATURE BLUE-AND-WHITE JASPER HILL GIFT BOX

Printed with artful ‘spider graphs’ which represent the varied flavor profiles of our cheeses, our gift boxes are sure to make a bold impression.

Striking the perfect balance of form and function, these boxes are extra-sturdy to keep their carefully-packed contents safe and secure from door to door.

Our boxes provide your recipients with all the information they need in order to maximize their enjoyment of your gift. Instructions for unpacking, serving, & storing our cheese are right on the box!

LOCAL ‘SYLVACURL’
ASPEN WOOD SHAVINGS

The Lovinsky family makes this beautiful eco-friendly alternative to packing peanuts from local aspen trees right here in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

These fluffy wood shavings comfortably cushion our gift box contents and act as aerated insulation, helping to keep your package cool.

We’re thrilled to support this local family-run business and support their sustainability-driven mission.

This all-natural filling is even reusable and compostable — everybody wins!

KEEPING YOUR PERISHABLES PROTECTED & CHILLED

We include ice packs in every perishable shipment before we put each box into a padded, insulated sleeve.

These sleeves protect your gift box from damage during shipping and help to maintain food-safe temperatures.

Ice packs sometimes thaw in transit, but there’s no need for concern.

Your cheese may not be refrigerator-cold upon arrival, but it should be a similar temperature to our ripening caves and safe to eat (and perfectly tempered!).

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • As we send everything perishable for expedited delivery, shipping is one of our biggest expenses. We do our best to absorb some of these costs and keep the price to you as low as possible.

    Orders between $100-$114 cost $15 to ship

    Orders between $115-$129 cost $10 to ship

    Orders between $130-$140 cost $5 to ship

    Orders over $140 ship for free.

    Shipping discounts will be applied automatically at checkout.

  • Orders placed by Tuesday ship to arrive by Friday.

    Orders placed after Tuesday will ship to arrive by the following Friday.

    This may change during peak times and holidays. Check the banner at the top of the page for up-to-date shipping deadlines.

    We recommend planning ahead and ordering early during the busy holiday season in order to avoid any shipping delays. Read more about our Holiday Shipping Schedule below.

  • After you receive your initial order confirmation email, you will receive a separate shipping confirmation with tracking info as soon as our fulfillment team prints your shipping label. This may take up to a few days, depending on which day of the week you place your order and how far out it is scheduled to ship.

    Please note: We often print these labels in advance, so you may not see any movement for a day or two.

    If you’ve selected a future shipping date at checkout, you won’t receive your shipping confirmation until that week.

  • Please note that we will be taking orders past these deadlines, but we recommend placing orders to ship the week before your desired holiday delivery date in order to ensure on-time arrival.

    The suggested deadlines below leave time for any unexpected circumstances (i.e. inclement weather) and allow room for re-shipment in time for the holiday if necessary.


    For delivery before Thanksgiving:
    Order by Monday 11/14

    For delivery before the first day of Hanukkah:
    Order by Monday 12/5

    For delivery before the last day of Hanukkah:
    Order by Monday 12/12

    For delivery before Christmas Eve:
    Order by Monday 12/12

    For delivery before New Year’s Eve
    Order by Monday 12/19

    Keep an eye on the announcement banner at the top of our website — we will be updating it with the most accurate lead times on a rolling basis.

  • Yes! When you reach our checkout page, you’ll see a date picker where you can select a future ship date.

  • It's normal for cheese to warm a bit in transit, even when traveling with ice packs. Don’t fret—cheese is a preserved food, originally meant to be kept out of refrigeration!

    Upon arrival, the ice pack will have thawed but the cheese should still feel cool to the touch; about the same temperature as the climate-controlled caves we age them in.

    The paper may be a bit damp with condensation, but this will dry out quickly in the fridge.

    If you have any concerns about the condition of your cheese, refrigerate right away and take stock a few hours later.

    If at that time you still have concerns, take a picture and let us know by emailing a photo to info@jasperhillfarm.com.

  • Natural-rind cheeses can be fragrant. These aromas are concentrated when sealed in a small box, and might seem strong when you first open it. Rest assured that the intensity will dissipate when refrigerated or otherwise allowed to air out — our cheese is alive, so it needs to breathe a little!


    Some cheeses are naturally more pungent than others, most commonly washed-rind cheeses like Winnimere, Willoughby, or Oma. Bloomy-rind cheeses like Harbison or Moses Sleeper can take on a brassica vegetable aroma at peak ripeness. The flavor profile of strong-smelling cheeses is often more mellow than its aromatics imply.

  • No. UPS will leave most packages upon delivery if there is a safe place to do so. In our experience, requiring a signature leads to delivery delays, and each extra day in transit is another day out of refrigeration.

  • We want you to have a great experience with our cheese, and will do everything possible to make sure orders are accurate and shipped in a timely manner.

    Since cheese is a perishable item, we strongly advise making sure someone will be available to receive the shipment.

    If you are sending cheese to someone as a gift, it’s a good idea to let them know that a perishable package is headed their way and make sure they are able to receive and refrigerate it on the day it is delivered.

    We understand the desire to keep your gift a surprise, but you don’t have to tell them exactly what’s inside!

    If you're unhappy with the product you receive, we will replace or refund your order.


    We are not responsible for damaged or spoiled product due to the following:

    - Incorrect delivery addresses
    - Unopened shipments
    - Gifts to recipients who are out of town or unable to receive shipments


    We will work with UPS to replace any product damaged as a result of a delayed shipment (e.g. inclement weather; mechanical failure).

  • Not at this time - each shipment must be processed as a separate order.

    However: you will see an option at the end of the checkout process to create your own Jasper Hill account. Doing so will allow you to save your billing and payment info as well as any past shipping addresses, saving you time when placing future orders.

  • Yes! Click here to check out our Volume Giving Collections.

    These collections represent the best possible deals on goods + shipping, and are available exclusively to those ordering 10 or more identical boxes.

SHIPPING & RECEIVING

  • Unfortunately our farm is not open to the public.

    We have a rigorous food safety plan which makes bringing visitors into the facility quite challenging; additionally our facility does not meet fire code requirements for public tours. If you're in the area, please look for our cheese at Willey's General Store.

    Stay tuned for updates on our forthcoming visitor center, which will offer grand views of our new state-of-the-art creamery and allow guests to see our cheesemakers in action!

    If you are a culinary professional who works with our cheese and would like to schedule an appointment, reach out. to us directly at info@jasperhillfarm.com.

  • Cheese is alive! You want it to be able to breathe, but not dry out.

    We recommend storing cheese in its original wrapper or a fresh sheet of waxed/parchment paper, then in a resealable container such as a tupperware or plastic bag. We’re also big fans of Bees Wrap!

    Wrapped cheese can also be stored in your refrigerator's vegetable bin, where it's more humid. We do not recommend using plastic wrap for long-term storage without a barrier layer to protect the cheese from off flavors.

    We don't recommend freezing cheese — it will alter the texture, and may pick up off flavors. Shredded cheeses seems to freeze just fine, as cooking nullifies any possible quality impacts.

  • Kept wrapped and refrigerated, our cheeses will last at least 2 weeks after they reach their destination.

    All of our cheeses are marked with a ‘best by’ date. Your cheese will not be unsafe to consume if eaten after this date, but it will have most likely passed its ‘peak flavor’ stage and will eventually develop off-flavors.

    Ripe, spreadable soft cheeses are usually best consumed fairly soon after cutting into them — they will remain tasty, but they can be difficult to store and may lose their shape after a few days.

  • All of our cave-ripened cheeses have what we call a ‘natural rind.’

    These rinds consist of molds, yeasts, and other microbes that we work hard to cultivate in order to create complex flavor development in our cheeses.

    The snowy-white velvet exterior of Moses Sleeper, the blue-green spots on Harbison’s spruce bark belt, the ‘blue’ in Bayley Hazen Blue — these are all beautiful, purposeful, flavorful molds!

    While our firmer cheeses can be stored in refrigeration for quite a while without issue, we recommend checking on and re-wrapping any leftover pieces every few days to mitigate and monitor mold development.

    If you open up a leftover wedge of cheese to find a few spots of blue, green, white, or grey mold, there’s no need for concern. These are just the same molds that are already on our cheeses’ rinds, migrating to a new part of the cheese. Use a sharp paring knife to scrape the entire face of the cheese, then enjoy or re-wrap your cheese in fresh paper.

  • If the cheese is part of a larger spread, our rule of thumb is about 1.5 ounces of cheese per person, total.

    For example, if you're serving 3 cheeses for a party of 100 people, you'll want about 9 pounds of cheese on hand - 3 pounds of each cheese.

    If cheese is the only food being served, you can increase this allowance to 2 or more ounces per person; likewise if there will be many other food options available, you can get away with 1 ounce per person. (As a reference, a stick of string cheese is one ounce—more cheese than you might think!).

  • The best way to serve cheese is however you best like to eat it! That said, here are some tips:

    Let the cheese come to room temperature before serving.

    Depending on the ambient room temperature, this could mean letting it sit out for 30-60 minutes. Keep the cheese wrapped during this time, unwrapping shortly before serving.

    Choose cheeses with a variety of textures and flavors.

    We often suggest something firm, something soft, and something blue.

    3-5 cheeses is a great number for a cheese board.

    More than that can be confusing or overwhelming for the palate.

    When pairing with food, look for contrast & harmony.

    Acidic foods like pickles or fruit are great with rich, buttery cheeses; sweet preserves or dried fruit pair beautifully with blue cheese or tangy, lactic cheeses. Very strong foods may overwhelm very mild cheeses, and vice versa - look for balanced intensity and contrasting flavors.

CHEESE STORAGE, SERVICE, & MORE