While family-run Hook’s Cheese only has seven full-time employees, this 8,500-square-foot cheesemaking plant — originally built as a livery stable to the Washington Hotel in 1875 and is on the National Register of Historic Places — has transcended history as one of the first cheese companies in Wisconsin to perfect the art and science of mixed milk cheeses.

Under the leadership of Master Cheesemaker Tony Hook and his wife, Julie, who is still the only woman to win the overall World Championship award for Colby at the 14th Biennial World Cheese Championship in 1982, Hook’s Cheese can be found at its on-site Factory Store, which on any given Friday has crowds lined up outside the door to purchase cheese curds and other products.

Hook’s cheese varieties are distributed by 30 distributors across the country to grocery stores, retailers and specialty stores in 40 states. Five percent of sales originate from the cheese processor’s weekly Saturday appearance at the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison, Wis., where the married couple of 52 years who initially met at a wedding have lived for 22 years.

Founded in the bicentennial year of 1976, Hooks Cheese has been an indispensable part of the community of Mineral Point, Wis. (pop. 2,569) for nearly 50 years.

As its name suggests, Mineral Point, which is located half way between Madison, Wis., and Dubuque, Ia., off Highway 151, was a mecca for lead and zinc, becoming one of the most important lead-producing regions in the nation during the early to mid-19th century. Hooks’ make-ready room built into the hills went from the aforementioned livery stable to warehouse to veterinary clinic before it was converted to a cheese plant in 1929.

“At that time, there were four other cheese factories within the city limits of Mineral Point along with 3,200 cheese factories in the state of Wisconsin,” Tony Hook notes. “The roads weren’t good. Every farmer milked a few cows, so they had to be able to take their milk to a factory and go back home to do chores and other farm work. Once roads improved, trucks were able to haul milk to the factories.”

Today, Hook’s Cheese handcrafts more than 60 varieties — 70 with cheese curds — of high-quality, artisanal small batch cheese in eight categories: Blue Cheese, Cheddar, Colby, Cow, Goat, Gouda, Sheep and Swiss.

“We make six different styles of blue cheese, three cow milk, one mixed milk, one goat milk, one sheep milk. And the most popular according to sales on the blue cheeses is kind of a draw between our Danish-style Original Blue that produces strong, sweet and tangy flavors and the Blue Paradise,” Tony Hook tells Dairy Foods on a tour. “The Original Blue is aged at least a year and layered with blue veining. It’s the most versatile of our blue’s and excellent on a burger or in a salad.

“The Blue Paradise is a double cream blue and it’s a great introductory blue cheese for people who think they don’t like blue cheese. We age that about six months, and it’s a little milder,” Hook continues. “But if you go with the most popular as far as awards, Little Boy Blue, made from rich sheep’s milk with notes of grapes and honey, is widely awarded and is a favorite of many team members and customers. It’s great for snacking, salads or melting.”

Another World Champion in 2024

Team Hook’s Little Boy Blue, which is aged between 10 and 12 months, captured the prestigious Best of Class at the 2024 World Championship in Milwaukee, Wis., which has about 3,300 entries competing in 130 classes. “It just took first at the World Championship,” Tony Hook proudly says, smiling as he holds the World Champion plaque. “We were competing against the Roquefort’s of the world from France. I think Team Emmi Roth from Monroe, Wis., won the overall World Championship in 2016, so it’s been a while since the crown has been won by a U.S. company.”

Many of Hooks’ cheeses are aged to bring out different flavors and textures. For instance, Hooks’ popular orange and white cheddars have been aged between one and 15 years and in some cases, 20 years. Aged cheddars account for 50% of sales, the Master Cheesemaker says.

“We age them all the way up, and we have manufactured a 20-year cheddar before. The first 20-year was released in 2015, it was an orange cheddar,” Tony Hook explains. “We released a white cheddar in 2023 and in 2025, our customers can anticipate a small batch of orange and also a small batch of white cheddar.”

As far as taste, there’s a more pronounced cheddar flavor as cheese ages one, two and three years. “When it gets to three to five, there’s a more acidic bite to it,” he explains. “Old-timers always say they like the sharp cheddar. The sharpness comes from the acidity that occurs between three and five years. After five years, it’ll start smoothing out again, and there’s more calcium lactate crystals and a kind of crunch — almost like a salt crystal, but it really doesn’t have any flavor.”

To get the desired flavor for its aged cheese, Hook’s Cheese is aged in small, on-site curing caves that allows for a slow-curing process. One block out of a vat of 50 blocks is designated as the “sample block,” which is tested for moisture, pH, coliform, listeria, taste, etc.

“I taste test it a couple of times a year to make sure it’s developing like I want,” he relays. “I prefer no bitterness, but I know what I want to achieve on the flavors, and if there’s a hint of off-notes, it’s time to package it up and sell it.”

Packaging distinction 

From humble beginnings with annual dollar sales of around $2 million in 1999, Hook’s Cheese has more than doubled its annual sales to just under $5 million in 2024. Volume-wise, though, it’s producing about one quarter of the total amount of cheese compared to 25 years ago, manufacturing 450,000 pounds today.

The slight decline in cheese production occurred because Hook’s Cheese went from being a contract manufacturer at the end of 2001, cutting out the big distributors who buy cheese in bulk, cut it up and put their own name on it, to the fact that now all 70 varieties of its small-batch cheese is branded and sold under one label — Hook’s Cheese.

Packaging also markets this distinction. The left-hand corner of the company’s new packaging label showcases the Master Cheesemaker logo, while the right-hand corner markets another major distinction for the brand: its aforementioned World Cheese Championship status won by Julie in 1982. A large billboard outside the plant also showcases this accolade along with an eye-catching photo of the company’s blue cheese and cheddar wheels, fruit and wine.

The label also features a blue-and-white ribbon that proclaims: “Proudly Wisconsin Cheese” and the fact that the cheese is “Handcrafted in Mineral Point, Wisconsin 53565.”

Tony Hook explains that the impetus for creating its own labels emanated from two pivotal moments in the company’s history. First, increased marketing and full-time visibility, since 1994, at the Dane County Farmers Market on Capitol Square in Madison, Wis., where each and every Saturday, customers will typically find Tony, Julie, their daughter, and grandson.  

“The Farmers Market hosts about 175 vendors and we consider it the biggest and best market in the nation,” he enthuses. “A lot of chefs were picking up our cheese for their restaurants and specialty stores since they heard about us. From there, and knowing we were already well-recognized with our World Champion Colby, we started to age more Cheddars. And by 1997, we decided we wanted another niche to be selling up there, so we starting making our Blues, which we’ve now been producing for 27 years.”

Second, in 2001, after nearly 25 years in business, Tony Hook, bolstered by flattering word-of-mouth and his decision to invest time and expertise in perfecting other cheese styles, decided to stop being the middle man (contract manufacturer).

He explains: “We were selling more and more, so instead of shipping everything out in 40-pound blocks on a pallet, we began to cut it down in smaller sizes (5-pounders, 1-pounders) for restaurants, 8-ounce chunks for grocery stores, etc. We now have 30 distributors across the nation selling Hook’s Cheese. And many of the restaurants who buy from us put our name right on their menus, which has increased our visibility. Our profits are a lot higher because we’re selling at higher margins … and we’re able to pay our farmers a guaranteed minimum.”

Mixed milk cheeses spell success  

Fresh milk is crucial to produce fresh cheese, and all milk for Hook’s Cheese is sourced from nearby Wisconsin farms. But in addition to making cheese using traditional cow’s milk sourced from the local Mineral Point area, Hook sources sheep milk from Hidden Springs Creamery in Westby, Wis., and goat milk from LaClare Family Creamery in Malone, Wis. (LaClare was featured in “Cheese Processor” and “Inside the Plant” profiles in the March 2024 issue of Dairy Foods.

“In 2009, I started working with Hidden Springs and Brenda Jensen, who wanted me to make a sheep milk blue for her,” Tony Hook recalls. “I said, ‘Well, I’ve been thinking about getting into this category.’ So, the first year, we split the vats with each dairy taking half. She sold hers as Bohemian Blue and we sold ours as Little Boy Blue.

“In 2010, her sheep (she has 700) began producing more milk and even the co-op she was selling it to couldn’t use all the milk,” he continues. “I’d get a call on any given Monday telling me they couldn’t use it all. ’You have a dairy plant, why don’t you use it?’ So, we started developing more flavors with sheep milk — Cheddar, Havarti, Butterkase, EWE’d be AMAZED and a few that we’ve invented ourselves.” 

In 2011, Hook began making Barneveld Blue, a firm, goat milk blue cheese he describes as “barny, earthy and toasty with notes of mushrooms.” The name also holds significance because not only did Tony graduate from high school in Barneveld, Wis., he took what he thought would just be a summer job at local cheese factory, Barneveld Cheese Co., working for head cheesemaker, Bill Ienatsch.   

Passionate and “absolutely loving” cheesemaking, Tony Hook apprenticed for one-and-a-half years under Ienatsch, earned his cheese license in 1972, and continued working for his mentor for six years. For 11 years, Tony and Julie ran Buck Grove Cooperative, a small, farmer-owned co-op with 10 local farms, that made Cheddars, Colby’s, Baby Swiss, Monterey Jack and Pepper Jacks. Yet, the co-op folded when the farmers didn’t want to invest in a new pasteurizer paving the way for the creation of Hook’s Cheese Co. which continues to purchase milk from the same farmers that were in the co-op.

Hook’s typically processes 10,000 to 15,000 pounds a day of cow’s milk, on the sheep side, the dairy receives 5,000 pounds each Monday, and for goat milk, which isn’t used as often, the company processes about 100,000 pounds a year.

Since adding Barneveld Blue to its portfolio, other goat cheese flavors quickly followed, including the dry Jack white cheese, Galway Bay; the Alpine style Hurdy Gurdy; and the Monterey Jack-inspired Maaaahnterey Jack, which achieves its creaminess because the cheese curd is washed before it is pressed, Tony Hook notes.

Throughout the mid-2000’s, the small cheese processor with big taste continued to innovate and experiment. In 2013, Ewe Calf to be KIDding, a sweet, nutty and earthy blue cheese, signified the company’s inaugural mixed milk cheese which combined milk from sheep, cows and goats. A year later, the Alpine style Triple Play which used three different starter cultures originated.

“This cheese was a little drier and my nephew Brian Hook, [who plans to take over the family business] set a little bit aside and we kept sampling it as it aged over the past nine years,” Tony Hook recalls. “The very first batch we made was excellent. We got it right on the first time, which believe me, doesn’t always happen.

“We made several batches that first year and started promoting it, but it didn’t all sell,” he continues. “We kept aging it and it became Triple Play Extra Inning, which is aged between a year and 15 months. Since 2015, we’ve had both of these SKUs available.”

Ideal for a cheese plate, Triple Play Extra Innings takes one on a roller coaster of flavors with a tangy, buttery and sweet notes in a triple-milk cheese aged at least one year.

Continuing with a baseball theme and bringing a heated explosion of flavors, Bang Bang Triple Play is a mixed milk cheese filled with cayenne, jalapeño and black pepper. Having fun with the packaging design, the three animals are wearing baseball caps with the letter “H.” When asked why the Master Cheesemaker logo isn’t on all the labels, Hook explains that since the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin sponsors the master’s program in cheesemaking, the emblem can only go on cheese that have cow’s milk in them.

Among Tony Hook’s personal cheese favorites are Extra Innings, the creamy, tangy 10-year Cheddar, which he highlights in 2006 was the first 10-year Cheddar to earn first place at the American Cheese Society contest, and Little Boy Blue. Pepper Jack is his go-to flavored cheese.

On the innovation and collaboration side, read “Inside the Plant” in this issue for details on a new Sheep Milk Spicy Truffle, which originated unexpectedly when Hook’s Cheese received an email from Italy.

“The chance to be creative, to experiment with new combinations of milk and ingredients and to bring a ‘down home” flavor and ingenuity for our Wisconsin-made cheese continues to drive me,” says the 72-year-old cheesemaker who has no plans to hang up his apron after 55 years.

“Hook’s Cheese is doing great and we’ve found our niche in making six different styles of incredible tasting Blues and our Aged Cheddars are part of the conversation because we’ve perfected that recipe formula not to mention our mixed milk cheeses,” Tony Hook concludes. “There’s a saying that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. That pretty much sums up our cheesemaking operations — love.”