State College woman’s ‘accidental cheese company’ offers boxes, boards and more

Cheese hobbyist and now entrepreneur Regina Brannen calls her newly formed business, The Queen’s Cheese, both “a creative outlet during the pandemic” and “an accidental cheese company.”

“It started with a very simple conversation I had with a good friend of mine. We were talking about gratitude and she said, You know what makes me really happy? Your cheese boards,” said Brannen, who lives in State College. “I was like, ‘Really? Are you serious?’ ”

The comment prompted Brannen, who currently works full time in marketing but has approximately 30 years in the food and beverage industry, to look at the market and the possibility of starting her own line of cheese and charcuterie boards. She launched The Queen’s Cheese in late 2020.

The Queen’s Cheese offers both individual “Royal” cheese boards and a subscription service for monthly boards. Boards include a variety of cheeses, meats, fruits, vegetables, pickled items and other accompaniments, like nuts, tapenade or dips. Items are sourced both locally and abroad, with some cheeses collected over the course of Brannen’s travels.

“We can fully customize a box for a specific theme. Some people really enjoy French cheeses, some people really enjoy Italian cheeses or Spanish cheeses. We can accommodate any palate, really,” Brannen said.

Subscription boxes lean more seasonal and are available in smaller and larger sizes (the Windsor and Kensington boxes, respectively). The Windsor box contains one soft cheese, one hard cheese, a skewer item and a selection of fruits and vegetables. The Kensington box features an additional soft cheese, a tapenade or hummus and selection of nuts.

So far, Brannen said her most popular offering is The Duke board, with its three cheeses, two types of cured meats, olives, caprese skewers and more. “I think it’s because there’s a big variety of cheese, meats and dips. ... There’s a little something for everybody on that particular board,” she said.

The runner-up is a smaller, but still varied, offering, The Lady cheese board, which Brannen said customers enjoyed gifting over the holiday season.

But for those who aren’t terribly keen on cheese, Brannen offers something for those clients as well. The Earl is a dairy-free charcuterie cone that serves one.

“They’re really fun. Lots of meat, lots of pickled stuff, lots of veggies. The focus is on meats and vegetables as opposed to meat and cheese,” she said.

Looking ahead to 2021, Brannen has quite a lot in the works. She’s looking to create a shippable cheese kit, for customers to create their own boards at home (currently, The Queen’s Cheese offers boards via pick-up and delivery only; cheese kits would be similar to Brannen’s current cheese boards, only featuring smaller, more portable cheeses, like miniature, individually-wrapped bries), as well as possibly doing charcuterie and cheese board classes for clients on Zoom.

“Everyone can get their cheese kit and start assembling during a Zoom party,” she said. “I’m also starting a YouTube channel called The Queen’s Rant, where I’ll talk about a particular piece of cheese and what it pairs well with, over a seven-minute snippet.”

As for Brannen’s favorite offering?

“I really love our Princess Nittany board. It’s a challenge. Everything is blue and white — blue cheese, Bees Knees Coffee’s incredible lemon blueberry pound cake, blue and white tortilla chips with hummus. ... That’s probably my most fun board,” she said. “I really love doing cheese pairings (for clients), too; I was just recently asked to help with one and it was really fun, being able to pair cheeses with wine and other spirits.”

Find The Queen’s Cheese’s full line of products and place an order at thequeenscheese.com. Orders for Friday pick-up or delivery must be placed by the prior Tuesday.