Outdoors
Cheese, Cider and Local Food Around Coaticook
Updated
The Coaticook valley is dairy country first and tourist country second, which is why the food here is good. You buy cheese from the people who milk the animals, often in a shop beside the barn. Wine is another story, and I will be straight about the drive further down.
The cheese makers
Tourisme Coaticook groups the region's cheese makers into a circuit called Les Têtes fromagères: four around Coaticook, plus ten elsewhere in the Townships. Its cheese page is in French, but the agrotourism listings are in English. The four:
- Fromagerie La Station, Compton, about 15 minutes from Coaticook (15 km, 9 miles). A fourth-generation organic farm known for Alfred Le Fermier, a raw-milk cheese with a shelf of awards. It also makes a raclette, which matters if you read to the end of this page. There is an Économusée on farm cheese making, guided tours by reservation, and a grilled cheese counter in the shop. Start here if you only have time for one.
- Laiterie de Coaticook, in town. Founded in 1940 and known across Québec for ice cream. It also makes fresh cheddar curds, the squeaky kind, along with aged cheddars. The dairy bar is the stop nobody in the car will vote against.
- Le Domaine de Courval, Waterville, about 20 minutes (22 km, 14 miles). Goat cheeses: three aged ones and a fresh spread in seven flavours, sold from a farm shop where you can see the herd.
- Fromagerie Les Broussailles, Martinville, about 20 minutes (20 km, 12 miles). Raw, certified organic goat and sheep milk, made the slow way. Look for Cru Berger and Tomme des Broussailles.
These are working farms with small shops. Hours change with the season. Check each one before you drive, and bring a cooler bag.
Cider, cassis and beer
Compton grows apples, so Compton makes cider. The Cidrerie de Compton makes organic ciders in the English tradition, some barrel-aged, some hopped. Verger Ferland is known for an ice cider that has won national awards, and for ciders flavoured with pear and plum. Domaine Ives Hill grows blackcurrants and turns them into wines, a cream liqueur and a sangria-style drink it calls Cassigria. Tourisme Coaticook lists all three, with addresses, in its agrotourism section.
In Coaticook itself there are two breweries. Microbrasserie Coaticook sits across from the Laiterie and pours unfiltered beers in a restaurant with a terrace. Hop Station brews in small batches in the old train station and serves tacos and other Mexican dishes beside the tracks.
The obvious note: tastings add up, and the roads between these places are dark country roads. Pick a driver, or buy bottles and open them back at the house.
Markets and harvest events
Compton runs an evening market on Thursdays from 4 to 7 pm in the Lions park. The 2026 season went from June 18 to September 17, so treat it as a summer thing.
In the fall, the same organisers put on Les Comptonales. The 2026 Virée gourmande is on October 10 and 11, from 10 am to 5 pm: a ticketed, self-guided tasting tour of six farm stops with a free shuttle, followed by a harvest market on Monday, October 12. Verger Le Gros Pierre in Compton has pick-your-own apples through late October and sells its pies in the farm shop. There is more on the season in our fall colours guide.
Wine: the honest version
The Townships' wine country is real, but it is not around Coaticook. The Route des vins de Brome-Missisquoi is a signposted 160 km loop linking about two dozen wineries around Dunham and Frelighsburg, on the western side of the region. From Coaticook, count about an hour and a half by car each way (roughly 115 km, 71 miles).
As a day trip from Coaticook, that is three hours of driving for a day of tasting, and somebody has to stay sober for the way back. The better plan, if you are coming from Montréal, is to visit the wine route on your way in or out, since it lies closer to your road than to Coaticook. Otherwise, buy Québec wine and cider at the local shops and drink it on the deck.
Maple
Sugar season in southern Québec runs roughly from March into April, depending on the weather. Tourisme Coaticook keeps the current list of sugar shacks and which ones serve meals. The house does its part too: the listing mentions maple treats waiting for guests.
Cooking at the house
La Villa Foresta has a modern kitchen with an island, a fondue set, a coffee and tea station and a picnic backpack. Spend a morning on the cheese circuit, then make it a fondue night or a raclette-style supper with La Station's cheese, Courval's goat spread, a loaf from a local bakery and a bottle of Compton cider. The next day, pack what is left into the backpack and take it to Lac Lyster.
For a group of twelve, this beats hunting for a table on a Saturday night. More on that in our reunion guide, and more on the towns nearby in the area.
Drive times are approximate and from Coaticook. Winter roads and harvest-weekend traffic change the math.
Useful links
Bringing a group?
La Villa Foresta sleeps twelve in five bedrooms near Coaticook, with a fire pit, a meadow and Mount Pinacle in the window. Dogs are welcome. It is new on Airbnb for 2026 and hosted by a Superhost.
See the house
