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"Words, words, words," said Hamlet. We use them every day to describe the foods we deal with in the specialty food business, and even though many of them have become diluted over the years from misuse or overuse, nomenclature is still important, especially as we seek to protect and codify the traditional foods that make life worth living for many of us, and that are central to our industry. Because words and names are so important, we thought it prudent and timely to consider some of the words that are used daily in the cheese business, specifically "Specialty," "Artisanal," and "Farmhouse." Here then are my definitions of these terms, based upon 20 years of eating, buying, selling, merchandising, and writing about cheese, as well as having visited countless cheesemakers (encompassing all three types) throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States:

- Specialty cheeses are those made in accordance with time-honored methods of production, in large factories and in small, whose techniques serve to enhance and preserve the cheese’s quality, flavor, appearance, and in some cases, its distinct regional identity. It should be noted here that specialty cheeses can indeed be made in large, gleaming, stainless steel factories. In fact, many fine domestic cheeses, and certainly the vast majority of our imported ones, come from relatively large factories. Perhaps they are not as large as the factories Kraft might use, but they’re large nonetheless. Paramount is the attention paid to the cheese, using the right starter cultures, and the methods and conditions in which the cheese is matured and for how long. If the cheesemaker cares foremost about the cheese’s flavor and character, then the size of the factory doesn’t matter. Specialty cheeses are leagues apart from mass-produced industrial cheeses, most of which serve the fast food industry or find their way to supermarket shelves contained in the all-too-familiar round green dispenser of "Parmesan." Specialty cheeses can also be artisanal cheeses. In other words, all artisanal cheeses are specialty cheeses, but not all specialty cheeses are artisanal.

- Artisanal cheese are specialty cheeses that are handmade in relatively small batches according to traditional methods. These, of course, are not made in huge quantities, although many find their way into national distribution, and some are even exported abroad.

- Farmhouse cheese (typically artisanal cheese, but not always) is cheese that is made only from milk that comes from the cheesemaker’s own herd of dairy animals. Perhaps, this is the easiest term to define, and yet it can be misleading. For example, in terms of nomenclature, it matters not whether the herd is six or 600 animals, nor does it automatically mean that the cheese is superior. What it does mean, ideally, is that the cheesemaker/dairy farmer has the utmost control over the quality of the milk. It is very important to note that all serious cheesemakers, especially those who work on a smaller scale, are on intimate terms with the farms that produce their milk supply. Many cheesemakers have started out as farmhouse operations and later found they were better off if they concentrated on one or the other — cheesemaking or dairy herding.

As the FDA once again ramps up its crusade to restrict or ban raw-milk cheeses (if raw-milk cheeses are outlawed, only outlaws will have raw-milk cheeses), and as the burgeoning American cheese scene continues to evolve and grow, choosing the right word is more important than ever. After all, as Mark Twain once wrote, “the difference between the almost-right word and the right word is . . . the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”