Local product Formatge-Maó Menorca

The Mahón-Menorca cheese has been deeply rooted in Minorcan history and culture since prehistoric times. Pottery districts of more than 3000 years ago have been found, which show that cheese was already made and eaten at that time.

The method and the techniques are passed on generation by generation from the fathers and the sons, and so the cheese has retained its own character, flavor and taste.

Depending on the manufacturing process, two types can be found:

The Mahón Menorca Artesano cheese is made from freshly milled raw milk using the traditional fogasser method: the whey is pressed by hand from the cheese crumbs previously wrapped in a linen cloth. The cheese gets his form in a press. The bark is treated turning the cheeses and rubbing them with oil and pepper. Hence the characteristic orange color of the Mahón-Menorca cheese.

The Mahón-Menorca cheese is made in the same way but with pasteurized milk. It is pressed in special shapes which give it the square shape.

Depending on the degree of maturity, three variants are distinguished:

Tierno, soft taste and texture. The ageing process lasts between 21 and 60 days; the cheese for every palate

Semicurado, more reddish than the tierno, with soft taste, and an ageing of 2 - 5 months

Curado, with more intense taste and harder texture; an intense taste experience with every bite

The production is undeniably linked to the fields and the traditional the Minorcan landscape. The production is carried out on the typical farmhouses, llocs, with green fields, surrounded by mortar less stone walls, where the Minorcan cows graze in freedom. You can visit these farms to see the production process of the cheese, taste its variants or participate in a workshop.

A gastronomic delight with the taste of the Mediterranean Sea!