Sometimes there's a loose color coding for cheese wax. Red is for hard cheeses like Edam, black is for aged cheese, green is for herb-infused cheese, and so forth. But it's not a consistent system ...

Cheese from Edam itself will be labelled Noord-Hollandse Edammer. There are also low-fat and vegetarian Edams available, both coated in the same red wax as the standard cheese. Edam with a green ...