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Say CHEESE! These are the 15 best Spanish quesos

Spain may be more famous internationally for its jamon than its queso but there is a huge and delicious choice of cheeses in Spain that stretch far beyond manchego.

Published: 27 March 2019 16:11 CET

Say CHEESE! These are the 15 best Spanish quesos

Stock image of a cheese board: Photo: allaserebrina/Depositphotos

In fact Spain is giving its northern neighbour, France, a run for its money in the fromage department with Spanish cheeses scooping three ‘Oscars’ in 2018 world’s best cheese awards compared to just two from France.

The title of 'best cheese in the world' this year passed to a Gouda called Fanaost but three Spanish cheeses were chosen among the top 16 cheeses in the world from a selection of more than 3,400 different cheeses hailing from 41 countries.

READ MORE: Spanish cheesemakers defend Manchego from Mexican 'copy'

So, to mark International Cheese Day which apparently falls on March 27th, here are the best cheeses as determined by the experts:

Maxorata, a medium-matured with paprika, or Semicurado con Pimentón was named 11thbest cheese (59 points) in the world.This goat’s cheese is created by the livestock farmers' cooperative in Puerto del Rosario on the Canarian island of Fuerteventura.

La Reserva from the Valladolid-based Entrepinares dairy, a Spanish cheese commonly found on supermarket shelves at Mercadona, earned 56 points and joint 12 place. It cost just €10.20 a kilo, a prize winning cheese we can afford every day.

Madurat, a cheese created by Formatges Mas El Garet in Tona a town in the hills near Barcelona won 54 points and joint 14th place

But that's not all. 12 other Spanish cheeses were named among the top 80 cheeses in the world.

Musgo Lavado de Elvira García (Elvira García, Ávila)

Queso Portugués de Cabra (Quesos de Almazora, Castellón)

Queso de Cabra Curado en leche cruda (Quesería Artesanal “Las RRR”, Granada)

Bodeja Oveja (Finca de Uga, Lanzarote)

Ybleu (Quesería Artesanal Los Payuelos, León)

Chisquero Semicurado (Quesos Corcuera, Ciudad Real)

Marantona Curado (Quesos La Casota, Ciudad Real)

Ibérico García Baquero (Lacteas García Baquero, Ciudad Real)

Curado Subaida (Subaida, Menorca)

Queso de Vaca, Cabra y Oveja curado con vino (Don Apolonio, Ciudad Real)

Cremositos del Zújar (ArteSerena, Badajoz)

Miss Capra (Valdecabras, Ávila)

READ ALSO: Meet the Spaniard making morcilla with his very own blood!

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Why do they pour cider like that in Spain's Asturias?

They say Asturian blood is 50 percent water and 50 percent cider, and given the 40 million bottles produced every year in the region, it doesn’t seem too hard to believe.

However, it’s the method of serving cider in Asturias which really captures the imagination.

The bottle will either come attached to a contraption which sucks up the cider and splurts it into a wide but thin-rimmed glass.

Or the waiter will come out every few minutes to grab your bottle and glass, lift the former high up with one arm and the latter down low around waist height before pouring some of the cider into the glass from at an arm’s length.

There’s even a verb for this action – escanciar – to decant.

The objective is for the cider to be shaken and aerated so that its natural carbon dioxide ‘awakens’.

When it is poured from above and hits the glass, carbon dioxide bubbles are produced that make the aroma of the cider come alive.

It’s good and normal for there to be splashback when pouring Asturian cider, but the aim is still to get most of it in the glass. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

These bubbles go away quickly so once served, the customer should quickly drink the culín (small bottom) up in one swig.

The action of escanciar imitates how cider would be traditionally served when it went directly from big oak barrels to the glass, as cider has been the drink of choice in Asturians since before Roman times.

READ ALSO: Why Spaniards’ habit of drinking alcohol every day is surprisingly healthy

This is after all natural cider which doesn’t come with the sugar, additives and pre-carbonated mixes of brands such as Strongbow, Magners or Kopparberg.

“It took me some time to get the hang of pouring cider, I missed the mark a lot, and my arm used to get very tired at first,” a Latin American waitress at a bar in Gijón told The Local Spain.

Many sidrerías (cider houses) and restaurants have cylindrical tubes on wheels where escanciadores (the waiters in charge of pouring cider) can put the glass in to avoid making a mess on the floor or splashing customers, as there is always some splatter even if they don’t completely miss the mark.

A waiter pours cider for customers at a cider bar in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo (Photo by RAFA RIVAS / AFP)

The more old-school chigres (cider house in Asturian) prefer to have sawdust all over the floor to absorb the spilt cider.

To pour, tirar (throw) or escanciar (decant) cider like an Asturian, you should tilt the bottle slowly from above and aim for the cider to hit the top part of the inside side of the glass, which has to be held at a 45-degree angle. It’s this that brings out the effervescence out in la sidra natural.

So when you visit the beautiful region of Asturias and you tuck into their famously ample servings of fabada asturiana (Asturian bean stew) or cachopo (meat, cheese and ham all together in breadcrumbs), washed down with one or two bottles of sidra, now you’ll understand what’s behind this eye-catching tradition.

READ ALSO: Eight fascinating facts about Spain’s Asturias region

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