Seven varieties of Cheddar cheese were evaluated using free‐choice and conventional (quantitative descriptive analysis) profiling. This study looks at the odour and flavour attributes of the cheeses; as well as the more widely reported texture characteristics. Generalized Procrustes analysis was used to analyse data from both profile methods, as well as being applied to compare the perceptual spaces obtained from the two methods. The results obtained from both profiling procedures were similar and easily interpretable, suggesting that the less time consuming free‐choice method is an appropriate technique when used with trained assessors. Strength of odour and flavour, and rubbery and grainy texture were some of the important attributes separating the cheeses in a two dimensional perceptual space. Preference judgements were obtained from 50 consumers using a nine point hedonic scale. These data were related to the profile space using Preference Mapping and the best model evalua