String cheese is not a specific type of cheese but rather describes the shape in which the cheese is sold.

Recently in the US, string cheese is roughly cylindrical, about 6 inches long and less than 1 inch in diameter. It is nearly always mozzarella but can be another semi-soft cheese instead. String cheese is eaten by pulling "strings" of cheese from the cylinder along its length and eating these strings. It is considered a snack food.

Traditional Armenian string cheese is often made with a different white cheese base, depending on local production. It includes black caraway seeds and a middle-eastern spice known as mahleb (ground black-cherry pits), and it comes in the form of a braided endless loop.

Because of the way it is pulled during processing, the cheese forms strings. There is also Syrian cheese processed this way. Other cheeses are only cut and pressed, not pulled, and do not develop strings.

See also: List of cheeses