A cheesy twist on March Madness at Willy Street Co-op

While the March Madness competition heats up on the basketball court, the battle for favorite cheese will be on at the Willy Street Co-op with its Fifth Annual Cheese Challenge.

Sixteen locally produced Wisconsin cheeses will compete head to head in a taste test contest to determine the victorious Big Cheese. 

Anyone can participate in the contest by filling out and submitting a bracket before March 20. Starting March 21, in-store taste tests and voting begins. The person with the bracket that matches the results most closely will win 8 pounds of cheese!

To enter the contest, fill out a bracket with your picks for the winning cheeses in each round. Brackets are available in stores, online and in the Co-op Reader newsletter. Drop the forms into the entry boxes at any of Willy Street Co-op locations by March 20.

Then comes the best part — tasting! The cheese tastings will happen 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays or 12 p.m.-.5.p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, from March 21 through March 31. Stop in to any of the co-op locations to taste the finalist cheeses and vote for your favorites.

The person whose bracket is closest to the actual results wins eight pounds of cheese, a pound each of the Edible Eight cheese finalists; in the event of multiple matching entries, one will be chosen at random. No purchase is necessary to enter.