Emporium Selection Cheese Village Advent Calendar

Once upon a time, Aldi invented a holiday.

Back 2017, Aldi UK tested out a limited buy wine Advent calendar that vanished off the shelves. A year later, Aldi US would also serve up a wine Advent calendar in a chaotic rollout that underestimated consumer demand. 

By 2019, the grocer figured out a better system while also significantly beefing up the selection of Advent calendars. A year later, during the pandemic winter of 2020, Aldi decreed that the first Wednesday in November was henceforth to be National Advent Calendar Day. That day has taken on a cult status for the Aldi fandom and has proven a veritable Black Friday for the grocer, with shoppers lined up early and often to scoop up the various options.

The wine calendar, of course, remains the flagship Aldi Advent offering. But another calendar has been there alongside the wine from the beginning; it’s an option that pairs well with the wine but can also stand on its own if you’re not one for wine.

I’m talking about the cheese calendar.

Now, this calendar has gone through a few incarnations. The first was the Happy Farms Cheese Calendar, which eventually gave way to the Emporium Selection Imported Cheese Advent Calendar. In 2024, we spotted a minor tweak on the theme, a veritable cheese village.

The Emporium Selection Cheese Village Advent Calendar (Product Code: 712944) is an Aldi Find. It’s only in stores for a short time, with each store getting a single supply. Once it’s sold out, you won’t be able to get it again until it comes back, which is almost certainly going to be next year’s annual National Advent Calendar Day. Also, because Aldi doesn’t ship products online, if you can’t find it in stores, you’re out of luck until the next first Wednesday in November.

In 2024, the cheese calendar cost $16.99, the same price as 2023, and with a few more ounces of cheese to boot. To our surprise, our local Aldi just happened to put the wine calendars in the refrigerated section the Sunday before National Advent Calendar Day, so we were able to scoop one up a few days early.

We bought the calendar ourselves with our own funds and took it home to review.

The box is kept refrigerated in stores and should be kept refrigerated at home. In addition, these are perishable, so be mindful of the Use-By date on the back.

The box contains 24 “imported festive mini cheeses.” The box notes that it is packed in the United Kingdom and that the cheeses are a product of the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Italy.

It’s worth noting that — as with past wine calendars — there are not 24 unique cheeses in here. Rather, as the box notes on the back, there are 12 varieties of cheeses in the box.

The 12 cheeses are:

• Mimolette
• Aged Gouda
• Bruschetta Cheese
• Extra Mature Cheddar
• Mustard Gouda
• Hard Goat Cheese
• Pesto Cheese
• Cheddar with Whiskey
• Red Leicester
• Black Truffle Cheddar
• Black Pepper Gouda
• Grana Padano PDO

Each cheese in this version of the calendar has its own listed ingredients, nutrition information, and allergens. Eleven of the 12 list milk as an allergen, while one of them lists milk and egg.

The Grana Padano is the cheese with milk and egg, is the only non-vegetarian cheese in the group, and has a Protected Designation of Origin designation.

If you want to know what wine and chocolate pairs with each cheese, the bottom of the box helpfully offers such pairings, which Aldi helpfully also sells, should you be able to get your hands on them. Alternatively, you can just eat these day in and day out as snack cheeses.

Whatever your preference, our experience over the years has been that some of these cheeses are hits with our writers, and others are not. Several of the cheeses in this lot have appeared in past calendars, and we can say, for instance, that Red Leicester and Extra Mature Cheddar have generally been well received here. On the other hand, our writers were less fond of the Black Truffle Cheddar (despite the fact that we do have some mushroom fans) and the Mustard Gouda also was less than liked. Your mileage may well vary, though, so don’t take our word for it.

If nothing else, this cheese selection is a great way to expand cheese horizons by giving buyers a cross-section of cheeses that may include things you might not normally get. Add that in with the additional layers of wines and chocolates Aldi also sells at this time of year, and you’re good for several weeks of unique combinations.

The Verdict:

The Aldi Advent calendars have been big hits since their landing on American shores back in 2018, and while the wine calendar is the star, this cheese calendar has been a mainstay of the tradition. And for good reason: every year Aldi serves up a fun, if sometimes a little different, spread of cheeses to ring in each day in December leading up to Christmas. Whether you’re a cheese fan or are looking to pair it with wine and / or chocolate, the Aldi cheese Advent Calendar is definitely something to look for on National Advent Calendar Day.