One Small Swiss Valley, 80 Cheeses: Meet Jumi

One Small Swiss Valley, 80 Cheeses: Meet Jumi

London has long been spoiled for great cheese, but few retailers double down on provenance quite like Jumi Cheese. With roots stretching back generations in Switzerland’s Emmental region, Jumi has carved out a niche in the capital by spotlighting cheeses that rarely leave their home villages.

A Swiss Micro-Region in Full Focus

The angle is tight and intentional: Jumi primarily sells its own cheeses, all crafted from raw, sileage-free milk sourced within a tiny radius of one another. Roughly 80 styles rotate through the counter, proving just how much range a single cluster of micro-dairies can deliver.

The presentation helps—the wheels and quirky shapes are staged like edible sculpture, designed to stop passersby in their tracks and pull them into a tasting.

From Borough Market to a Creative Base

The London story began in 2011, when cheesemakers Juerg Wyss and Mike Glauser teamed up with Marcello Basini, setting up an old-school stall at Borough Market. Enthusiasm from shoppers was immediate, eventually leading to a permanent stand and, by 2018, a larger space in Newington Green with a kitchen and room to experiment.

That kitchen is now a quiet game-changer. It lets the team bake fresh sourdough and baguettes daily, and showcase cheeses the way they want—without the limitations of a stall setup.

Micro-Farms, Zero Compromise

Jumi doesn’t traffic in major commercial brands. Instead, every cheese comes from micro producers—small herds milked once or twice a day, with producers who know every animal and keep total control over quality.

One standout is Belper Knolle, a garlicky, pepper-dusted cow’s milk cheese shaped like a mini tennis ball. It’s made in a tiny village with a single creamery—exactly the sort of hyper-local specialty that rarely makes it to export.

Customers respond to this transparency and minimal interference; the cheeses are all-natural, with no artificial boosts or shortcuts, and the direct line to producers is part of the appeal.

Raclette, But Make It Social

Raclette has become a growth engine for the business and a broader category trend. From September through May, Jumi hosts raclette and fondue nights at the shop, while also selling the cheese year-round alongside tealight-powered raclette machines and around 20 variations (smoked, truffled, chilli and counting). New flavors are tested annually.

Marcello attributes raclette’s momentum to its fun, affordable, communal nature: park some baby potatoes at the table, melt your cheese, and no one has to dart back to the kitchen.

The Bigger Picture

Jumi’s London presence demonstrates how much territory Swiss artisan cheese still has to explore. Beyond the familiar Emmental and Gruyère lies a landscape of tiny-batch, deeply regional styles—and Jumi’s mission is to put them on the map, one sample at a time.

Fourteen years in, Marcello still says the best part of the job is the face-to-face conversations and the moment a taste triggers delight. For a category increasingly defined by storytelling, that personal connection may be Jumi’s sharpest edge.

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Reporting and context for this piece were informed by an original article in Specialty Food Magazine.

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