Olavidia goat cheese, from Spanish brand Quesos y Besos, overtook France’s soft-cottage competitor, Fromagerie Berthaut, and on Wednesday (3) won the World’s Best Cheese Award in 2021.
The World Cheese Awards competition is promoted annually by the International Cheese Festival. This 33rd edition was held in Oviedo, Spain, where 4,000 cheeses from five continents were evaluated by 250 international judges.
And Olavidia got 103 expert votes against 98 for the French cheese, which topped the competition until the last minute, according to “CNN”.
While broadcasting the event, British judge Jason Hinds described it to his colleagues as goat cheese “with a rich, seductive and creamy texture”.
“I just want to sleep with him,” he joked. Silvia Pelaez, owner of a cheese factory in southern Spain, celebrated the title of her artisanal producer. “Hard work pays off,” she said. Quesos y Besos has six employees, according to the radio.
The evaluators included food scientists, cheese sellers, cooks and bartenders, who rated each meal’s appearance, smell, texture and taste.
Currently, there is a waiting list for Olavidia on the brand’s website. A box containing 300 grams of the product costs 15 euros, about 95.50 BRL.
In the latest edition of the event, which was held in Bergamo, Italy, in 2019, the American blue cheese Rogue River Blue won. In 2020, the competition was canceled due to Covid-19.
