The cabrales blue cheese of northern Spain earned the title of the world’s most expensive cheese after a 2.2kg wheel was sold at auction for €30,000.
The cheese had been matured in a cave at an altitude of 1,400 meters, at a temperature of 7C, where it spent “a minimum of eight months”.
The cheese was sold to restaurant owner Iván Suárez, who owns El Llagar de Colloto in Asturias. Mr Suárez said “the passion for the land” and “recognising the work of the cheesemakers” made him buy the cheese.
The usual price of cabrales is €35 to €40 a kilo. The cheese is made using raw cow’s milk or a mixture of cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk and matures in caves in the Cabrales area in the Picos de Europa national park. This cheese’s exorbitant price is due in part to the backbreaking process of making it. First, the manufacturer takes raw cow’s milk or a mixture of cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk and then ages it for at least four months in mountain caves in the Cabrales region in the Picos de Europa national park.
After aging, the ritzy dairy product is transported an hour down the mountain by foot to the nearest road, whereupon it’s sold for around $30-$35 for a little over two pounds (equivalent to the wholesale price of a premium steak). In fact, this bank-breaking blue is often used to adorn giant slabs of beef like a fancy-pants Philly cheesesteak.
The previous world record price was set at €20,500 in 2019 for a cheese also bought by Mr Suárez.
According to the Internet
