This cheese was voted No. 1 at the 2021 World Cheese Awards
Yes! Recently, after the 2020 awards couldn’t go ahead because of coronavirus, the prize for the best cheese in the world was finally awarded again during the 33rd edition of World Cheese Awards. And good cheese news always makes us happy, so we’re delighted to spread that happiness…
Last time, the honor went to a blue cheese called Rogue River Blue, marking the first time an American cheese had won this competition. This year, after an exciting judging process involving more than four thousand (!) cheeses from all over the world, a Spanish cheese from a small producer emerged as the winner:
A kiss with your cheese
The cheese is called Olavidia, made by the sweetly named cheesemakers Quesos y Besos (‘Cheeses and Kisses’). It’s a soft goat cheese with a distinctive black stripe running across the middle when you cut it open, made from edible olive-pit ash. The jury praised the cheese for being ‘rich, seductive, with a creamy texture’, and having a ‘round, gentle’ flavor.
Small and fine
It’s also lovely that this cheese is made by a very small family business employing just six people. Owner Silvia Pelaez was honored and said that all the hard work that goes into being a small, humble cheese producer is clearly paying off. Their business, officially called Lacteos Romero Pelaez, is located in southern Spain, in the town of Jaen.
Cheese from Lutjewinkel
These World Cheese Awards, organized by the Guild of Fine Food, aren’t the only awards of their kind. In Wisconsin, America, for example, there’s also a major biennial event that awards a prize for the best cheese in the world during its World Championship Cheese Contest. Most recently, Swiss Gruyère made by cheesemaker Michael Spycher won there. Undoubtedly delicious cheese, but at the time we mainly did a happy dance for the third-place winner: a hard cheese from Lutjewinkel!
Also read:
- Gruyère is the most delicious cheese in the world
- Make this special grilled cheese sandwich with Gruyère and red wine
- Recipe: fig and goat cheese salad with mint and dukkah
Image: Michael Lane for Guild of Fine Food
