Country Cheese Coffee Market

Country Cheese has a great selection of cheeses but they also have a great selection of tea, chocolate and more. My walking partner has gotten a freshly baked pistachio muffin a couple of times which she said is very good. It’s a nice place to go if you are looking to buy cheese or tea but it’s also nice place to go if you’re looking to put together a gift basket since they have a nice selection of crackers and jams to choose from. You can even purchase a nice bottle of wine next door at Arlington Wine & Spirits to add to your gift basket. Country Cheese is a nice addition to the neighborhood and I’m glad they are there.

If you’re a tea lover, don’t miss out on this spot! Shirley travels around the world and brings only the best tea back to the shop. It’s a shame the sign outside still makes it look like it’s a pharmacy. It should say ‘TEA’ in big letters.
The shop is stuffed with all sorts of goodies, ranging from international cheeses (including Norwegian Brown Cheese!) to tea pots to gelato to goat milk butter to cupcakes and the list goes on. It’s the perfect spot for a quick sit down (tables are both inside and outside) or if you need to grab a lovely gift for someone. They even have flowers.

This market used to have a problem with their chocolate bars, they had become brittle and had chocolate bloom.
But I’m happy to report that now the chocolate bars are fine, and they have even increased the selection of bars considerably. Many of them are unique, and most are excellent.
They also offer the best gelato in town, both by the scoop and packaged.
I highly encourage you to explore their offerings.

Boba, Boba, Boba, Boba, Boba!!! I come here at least once a week, and it’s amazing… Their cheese is very good, but their boba is the BEST!!! I have not come here once without drinking the tasty, delicious, smooth and just pure good boba! As to their service, quite fast, but the workers are a bit cold… :(
Overall pretty good, I’m more than a fan!

Great cheese selection and specialty products such as chocolate, sauces, crackers, tea, etc. It is a nice location near Young’s market on the Arlington, so you can complete many of your shopping needs at both locations. I do miss the old pharmacy, but am glad that Shirley’s Country Cheese Market replaced it and not anybody else. I believe if you put $ 50 on a gift card there, they give you 10% off whenever you use it. The iced latte wasn’t half bad either.

Unfortunately, after repeated subpar experiences, I’ve had to downgrade my review for this shop. Watered down milk tea, espresso drinks, moldy cheese, and stale croissants. Perhaps they don’t get enough traffic so do not have enough turnover, but it has made me reluctant to visit this shop anymore.

Not very well trained staff, I was over charged by 10 dollars. Didn’t realize it till I got home… My bad.

Love their gelato! A lot of tasty looking flavored to choose from. They also have candy, pastries, wine and adult drinks I believe and obviously a big big selection of delicious old fashion cheeeeeeeeeese

First off, the place is kind of a cluttered mess. They have a lot of non cheese related items for sale that makes this place and eye sore. Secondly, they market themselves as a cheese shop but they also have tea and boba and gelato and… and … Lol. Lastly, we came here for a cheese platter after seeing multiple images on Unilocal of really delicious looking platters. So, we ordered the $ 15 cheese and meat platter. Not sure what it comes with, they didn’t mention anything when we ordered it.
When we got our cheese plate it was a bit of a disappointment, we got two hard cheeses, 3 olives, salami and prosciutto which were good, but no cheese jam. I would really have liked one of the cheeses to be a soft pliable cheese.
Anyway, after, we further investigated the menu, there was another small menu that says the $ 15 cheese plate comes with 3 cheeses of our choices. We definitely didn’t get 3 cheeses and we def didn’t get asked if we even wanted to choose our cheese. WTH. LAME.
So that’s my story and that’s why I give them 2 stars. One for having a good variety of cheeses and one for a tip cause it’s a nice try. Hopefully they can do more research about a cheese shop and up their game a few notches.

Best shop around the neighborhood. They have some very nice workers, very nice and clean environment as well as good selections of cheese, tea, coffee and chocolate. Tried their drinks like boba, ice tea and coffee, they are all very good. Can’t forget their sandwiches and pastries, all so delicious. Will definitely go back.

Went in for a tea today. Got the Jasmine milk tea with boba. It was good, but I should have requested no ice. Lots of tea choices and the women working were very nice. Will return if I’m in the area.

This is a small cute shop packed with coffee, teas and chocolate. They actually have a greatly nice chocolate selection and the prices are quite reasonable. They also sell cheese and a whole assortment of different items. The manager of the business is very nice and I come by just to pick up my occasional chocolate fix.

Super nice ladies working there. I might come back for the chocolate and cheese selection, but never for the sandwiches.
The sandwich they served me today was quite possibly the worst one i can remember half eating. The focaccia bread was hard and tasteless like a brick, the soggy eggplant pieces were greasy, mushy and the flavor clashed with the meat and cheese. I got the prosciutto and the cheese paring was also off. I tried my best to eat it, but ultimately could not. My final complaint is that the sandwich is advertised as a panini but it was just barely warm. Only to the point of making the cheese sweat, but not melt:-(
The shop is super cute and good for cheese, Chocolate, meats and crackers but definitely not for the deli.

Shirley is the sweetest woman! I was able to speak with her briefly on my way to work as I ordered Minestrone soup and some tea because I was feeling a little sick. She reminded me of how important it is to rest and not over work myself. She was super knowledgeable with my tea selection because I had a sore throat and needed something soothing. She also showed pride in her store and food selections and made sure to point out that the focaccia bread that came with the soup was baked fresh on that day. The soup was delicious. Full of fresh vegetables. The tea did its job of soothing my sore throat. I would recommend this place to anyone that is interested in organic food choices and a little coffee and/​or tea to make your day flow just right

I went in today and it would be the last time I will go in there.
I usually love the merchandize they carry. Especially the overseas goodies. But the service today was appalling. It was Sunday we went in after a great hike to have ice cream with the kids and some tea and things for the adults. The two young girls that were serving us were absolutely awful. It was quite shocking. we paid for the rest of the stuff we bought and just set outside so we don’t have to feel their unwelcoming energy. What a shame, I usually like supporting local businesses.

Oh sadness. I just discovered that the US Postal Service has shut down the little Kensington Post Office that was housed in the pharmacy and then in Country Cheese. It was my favorite in the area.

Stopped by the Kensington branch of Country Cheese Coffee Market. As many other Unilocalers have reported in their reviews, this was the former location of Arlington Pharmacy/​Arlington General Store in the unincorporated town of Kensington with a Berkeley zip code.
I walked around the interiors. It is fashioned like an old apothecary and artisan studio. They kept some of the set-​up of the former pharmacy.
There were some cheeses, hard cheeses to sample. These were Parmesan type cheeses and some of them were pretty good.
There is a coffee/​tea bar. Looks interesting to check out. Will definitely ponder a future visit to sample tea, coffee, and chocolate.
I decided to get a few macarons and a couple of vanilla cupcakes. They looked rather familiar, I think they are using the same baker that used to supply the now-​closed Sugar Cone Café. I had to wait a bit for someone to attend to me. The good news after waiting quite a bit to be served was that the macarons and the cupcakes were a dollar each. And they were packaged quite nicely for me to bring home.
I too join my fellow Unilocalers in joining Country Cheese Coffee Market to the neighborhood. Wishing them all the best, you all know the rest! And I shall return.

Time: 1:17pm/63°F partly sunny
Purpose: Was in area for client meet up. Driving up Arlington ave this place was first of several shops located within the block itself.
Set-​up: Small shop located on a split corner street. From the outside one would think it’s all about cheese and wine. Once you enter you’ll quickly learn there’s more to it than that. This place has everything that a normal grocery store would carry, only more local and sustainable. Most of their offerings are on the high end side. 4 – 5 high chairs facing window for people watching outside have 3 – 4 tables patio area behind bus stop bench. Coffee bar is a 3 – 4 seater at most you can sit and watch your drink being prepared.
Staff: Several workers buzzing around most are helpful and attend to you. Most help I got was from the coffee area two ladies scrambling to get things done, over saw me but apologize. The guy at the cheeses/​olive section was quiet and not to talkative, not sure why, maybe bad day.
Cleanliness: It’s clean enough for me to comeback and buy again, nothing to talk about, it’s a clean shop for grocery business.
Eats/​Drinks: 4 bite size quiche 2/​$ 1, ginger molasses cookie $ 1.50, several pieces of Ghirardelli squares $.25ea, chicken pot pie $ 6, and small drip $ 2. The bite size quiche was star star of the show here perfectly made was still warm when I received it. The rest of the items can be had anywhere, however surprisedly the in house coffee was strong, later learn that they roast their own.
Products: Coffee, beans whole/​grind per lb, tea per lb, chocolate, desserts, cheese, wine, olives, bread, soup, salad, frozen pasta, oil, herbs/​spices, ceramic pottery, DIY kitchen supplies, honey, dairy, dried fruit/​nuts, candies, boba drinks etc.
Tradeoffs: You really get what you pay here some items are even cheaper than well known natural food store at least 15−18% cheaper. None of that Berkeley Farms or Frito Lays crap all best of the best.
Final Thoughts: Hidden in the higher hills of Berkeley this shop is much more for the family oriented on the weekends. Best suited if you don’t want to hear too much cars or industrial vehicles. Even with a chevron across the street there wasn’t much noise, mechanics impact air wrench was quiet the whole time. It’s truly a shop for the ones who appreciate the finer qualities in life. A one stop shop that has a postal/​packaging department in the back. You’ll be glad you came here. Shirley Ng is the lady who most of staff ask her questions however I think she’s the owner though. A shop that carries a little bit of everything like the one on Hopkins.

My five-​star review is based on my enthusiasm for the new project on my hope that Country Cheese will make a success out of its new location.
As two other reviewers have pointed out, the stock has come in only very slowly. It would not be out of place to say that the opening has been soft and gradual. When I first visited the store about two weeks ago, there were boxes of crackers but nothing in the way of cheese. In the middle of last week there was mozzarella and a few other cheeses, but no parmesan, to cite one example. More cheeses were delivered on March 21, and now the stock is much more substantial.
I reviewed the Hopkins location a few years ago and complained then that Country Cheeses often taste as if they’ve been sitting around in a smelly refrigerator cabinet for too long. I have had the same issue with the Berkeley Bowl cheeses and accordingly have been buying cheese only at the Cheese Board, where cheeses are scraped and then sampled in order to ensure freshness.
Today at the new Country Cheese I bought some truffled raw milk Gouda and a cheese called Crotonese. Both are excellent, and neither tastes like it’s been overly long in a refrigerator case. Country Cheese: please keep up the good work!

Great place, just like the other two locations. It is much more spacious though, having taken over the old Arlington Pharmacy, which was a pretty large space with a back room and an upstairs office. They have taken advantage of this extra square footage with many decorative appointments in the windows and on the walls, and more space between displays and shelves.
There is of course the grand selection of chocolate, cheese, oils and vinegars that we’ve come to love from the other two locations. In addition, there is a coffee and tea counter along the back wall, which also offers a selection of prepared foods such as quiches, pies and soups. The cheese refrigerator in the back corner is complemented by a tasting table and a cheese counter at which both cheese and charcuterie are available. A front bar overlooking Arlington Avenue offers a pleasant place to sit while enjoying a hot cup of Vietnamese coffee.
I have always enjoyed visiting the other two locations, and am really happy that Country Cheese is now just a stone’s throw from my house.