Cheese, wine and fruits go together sweeping the taste buds with their blend of flavors. From sour, to sweet to mildly bitter the tangy combination will leave you asking for more. Most of you would like to put out a platter as appetizer but wonder what would be the best fruit and cheese pairings. Here are a few suggestions that might help.

Fruit and Cheese choices: There are soft cheeses, semi-soft cheeses, soft ripened cheeses, semi hard cheeses, hard cheeses, Hispanic style cheeses, blue-veined cheeses and goat cheeses to choose from. That’s not all you have a variety of fruits to choose from such as apples, pears, grapes, peaches, kiwi fruit, bananas, berries, mango, melons, figs, pineapple and plums to name a few.

Soft cheese: Cream cheese, Mascarpone, Neufchatel

Soft ripened cheese: Brie and Camembert

Semi soft cheese: Fontina, Havarti, Monterey jack, Muenster, Mozzarella

Semi-hard cheese: Cheddar, Gouda, Edam, Swiss, Provolone, Emmentaler, Gruyère

Hard cheese: Asiago, Romano and parmesan

Quesos or Hispanic style cheese: Asadero, Coteja, Queso Blanco

Blue veined cheese: Blue,Gorgonzola, Stilton

Goat cheese: Feta and Chevre

              Fruits:                                                    Cheese:

Apples, Pears, Mangos & Melons         Cream cheese, mascarpone & Neufchatel

Plums, Berries & Apples                        Brie & Camembert

Apples & Pears                                     Fontina

Grapes, Pears, Raisins                           Havarti

Plums, strawberries & peaches              Monterey Jack

Berries, Peaches, Pineapple                   Mozzarella

Apples, Pears, peaches                          Gouda, Edam

Grapes, melon, pineapple                       Provolone

Apples, Figs, Grapes                              Parmesan, Asiago

Melons and mangos                                Romano

Apples, peaches and Pears                      Asadero

Pears                                                       Stilton

Apples, Pears and peaches                       Feta

 These may be the best fruit and cheese pairings but many mix and match can be done to suit individual palette.

 Image Credit: ifood.tv & morgueFile.com