{"id":28471,"date":"2016-09-12T17:09:35","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T21:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=28471"},"modified":"2016-09-16T11:19:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T15:19:09","slug":"dairy-treasure-in-the-azores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dairy-treasure-in-the-azores\/","title":{"rendered":"Dairy Treasure: Cheese and More in the Azores"},"content":{"rendered":"

A larger-than-life cow statue stands sentinel over the bustling downtown bazaar in Ponta Delgada, the largest city and de facto capital of the Azores. Bovines are beloved mascots here, bedecking postcards, shot glasses, even Christmas ornaments at stalls frequented by tourists. Locals, meanwhile, snap up wheels and wedges from across the Portuguese archipelago at the pungent O Rei Dos Queijos (\u201cThe King of Cheeses\u201d) store, adjacent to the market.<\/p>\n

In the Azores, days start and end with dairy. There is bright yellow butter to smear on bread and fresh cow\u2019s milk rounds served with red pepper sauce at breakfast. Dinner is often capped with sharp cheese stacked with bananas or chunks of locally grown pineapple—and port, of course. \u201cPretty much every day, you\u2019re going to have cheese—it\u2019s a given,\u201d says Maria Lawton, a cookbook author who was born on the largest island, Sa\u0303o Miguel, and now lives in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

People have been making cheese in the Azores since they first settled there in the 15th century—and though the nine volcanic islands located 900 miles off the coast of Lisbon constitute just under three percent of Portugal\u2019s land, today they produce 50 percent of the country\u2019s cheese and 30 percent of the country\u2019s cow\u2019s milk. There are two raw-milk PDO varieties, too: sharp Queijo Sa\u0303o Jorge and buttery Queijo do Pico. Though tourism is on the rise in the Azores, many well-traveled Americans would be hard-pressed to locate the island chain on a map, and general knowledge of Azorean food and culture beyond the diaspora is woefully lacking. Over nine days last November, I visited five of the green gems—S\u00e3o Miguel, Terceira, S\u00e3o Jorge, Faial, and Pico—and a dozen creameries, both small-batch and industrial, with the Azores Business Development Society. My mission? To uncover their special and little-known dairy traditions and meet the creative makers who are bolstering the scene.<\/p>\n

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A cheese plate at Cella Bar on Pico<\/em><\/div>\n

Home Port Advantage<\/h2>\n

Circling Terceira before our plane touches down at the tiny airport, the fog parts, revealing an undulating quilt of grass patches separated by stone walls. Grazing cows, mostly spotted Holsteins<\/a>, dot dramatic cliffs. In 2014, there were 89,000 registered dairy cows in the Azores, and they are seemingly everywhere—perching on hills sloping toward the sea, lumbering down the road.<\/p>\n

They certainly have enough to eat. Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on all sides and influenced by the Gulf Stream, the Azorean climate is temperate and sub-tropical, with temperatures averaging between 60\u00b0F and 80\u00b0F. Persistent humidity and abundant rain feed the lush, sea-sprayed pastures where cattle munch year-round.<\/p>\n

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A street in Velas center on S\u00e3o Jorge.<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

\u201cOur cows are fat here. They graze every day and some never see shelter,\u201d says Jorge Manuel A. Costa Leite, chairman of the board at Insulac<\/a>, a factory on Sa\u0303o Miguel that produces pasteurized cheeses under the brand Valformoso<\/a>. Silage is rarely used—only as a diet supplement in late fall, he says. Leite points proudly to Insulac\u2019s vibrant yellow butter, claiming its saturated hue comes from the beta-carotene in the fresh grass.<\/p>\n

Eduardo Vasconcelos, milk supply director at Sa\u0303o Miguel\u2019s Terra Nostra (owned by French conglomerate Bel<\/a>), echoes these sentiments. \u201cCalifornia can produce cheese from grass-fed cow\u2019s milk, but the Azores is unique,\u201d he says. To promote and help protect this terroir, Terra Nostra launched the \u201cHappy Cows\u201d initiative in January 2015. The 500 local farmers who provide the company with milk to create 14,000 tons of Edam-style Flamenco cheese each year submit to a series of audits and make improvements with an eye towards sustainability, animal welfare, food safety, and other benchmarks to achieve \u201cHappy Cow\u201d certification. So far, 34 milk suppliers have earned the distinction (plus benefits such as higher pay). \u201cWe\u2019re ambassadors for the Azores,\u201d Vasconcelos says.<\/p>\n

The revered raw-milk, PDO-certified Queijo Sa\u0303o Jorge is another important ambassador. Natives and expats alike get misty-eyed when talking about the semi-hard wheels—bursting with fresh, herbal flavors—made on the Azores\u2019 fourth-largest island. \u201cThe feeding process of the cows here on Sa\u0303o Jorge is one of the reasons the cheese tastes the way it does,\u201d says Natasha Cabral, a quality manager at dairy cooperative Uniqueijo. \u201cThey eat very, very lean … the main food is grass.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Uniqueijo facility is large, making 1,000 tons of cheese annually, but the process is still manual, with staffers applying protective wax to the hefty rounds by hand, then scraping off any imperfections and affixing labels one by one. Cheese is made daily—twice a day when the cows are most productive between May and September.<\/p>\n

Under PDO regulations, the cheese must be aged a minimum of three months, but the \u201clonger it ages, the better it gets,\u201d says Lena Amaral, another Uniqueijo quality manager. Not all Azoreans agree, however. While snackers on the Portguese mainland prefer the sharper, seven-month-aged cheese, islanders flock to creamier three-month-aged wedges. (An excellent two-year-old variety flecked with tyrosine crystals is available only at the onsite tasting room.)<\/p>\n

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An Uniqueijo worker applies labels to wheels of PDO-certified Queijo S\u00e3o Jorge<\/em><\/div>\n

Making Waves<\/h2>\n

The smaller makers I meet, however, seem to have more flexibility to experiment and innovate. On cow-scattered Terceira alone, three artisans are looking outward, celebrating and sharing dairy traditions in fresh ways.<\/p>\n

Among them is Joa\u0303o Henrique Melo Cota of the island\u2019s Queijo Vaquinha. His award-winning artisan creamery turns out roughly 330 pounds of pasteurized cheese daily, six days a week, from Jersey<\/a> cow\u2019s milk (atypical in the Holstein-heavy Azores). During Cota\u2019s childhood, his family sold milk to the factory\u2019s original owner—and when the graying proprietor retired in 1998, Cota bought the business and the recipe for the traditional bar-shaped cheese made in wooden boxes. He\u2019s since added large rounds aged between one and two months (including a pepper-spiked variety) and yogurts to his repertoire.<\/p>\n

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Jo\u00e3o Henrique Melo Cota moves wheels at his Queijo Vaquinha creamery on Terceira.<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

In 2002, Cota and his staff built a new factory and tasting room with a viewing window so visitors can witness the hands-on process unfold. \u201cI like to work the cheese, but eventually I like to make money,\u201d Cota says through a translator, with a laugh. Now they host events and busloads of tourists from as far away as Japan, Canada, and Cape Verde.<\/p>\n

At family-owned Soterlac, a 15-minute drive down the road, technical director Andre\u0301 Parreira hopes to build a tasting room and a cheese museum and aspires to go organic. In addition to fresh rounds, his factory currently crafts two aged pasteurized cow\u2019s milk cheeses under the VB Queijos label: Ilha (aged a minimum of three months, it has a semi-hard paste dotted with eyes) and Bravo (a semi-soft cheese matured at least 45 days). His line used to include mixed-milk wheels—made with sheep\u2019s, goat\u2019s, and cow\u2019s milk—but it became increasingly difficult to source the milk from the smaller ruminants. Plus, \u201cpeople in the Azores aren\u2019t open-minded when it comes to different cheeses,\u201d Parreira says.<\/p>\n

The company may reintroduce the cheeses as they expand to different markets, however—Parreira says he\u2019s working on stocking shelves in Spain, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. He\u2019s also planning a trip to California to connect with potential business partners.<\/p>\n

Quinta dos Ac\u0327ores, also on Terceira, has roots in the meat business, but company manager Helga Barcelos says it was always her father Francisco\u2019s dream to transform the milk from his herd into value-added items. In 2012, Quinta dos Ac\u0327ores launched yogurts and ice creams (flavors include chocolate studded with Sa\u0303o Jorge cheese); to put the remaining 5,000 liters of daily milk to use, the company began producing pasteurized cheese in 2013. Originally trained by a mainland cheesemaker, the team now makes 150 tons of cheese in four varieties per year—including two-month-aged cow\u2019s milk Moria\u0303o, which clinched its category at the 2014 Cheeses of Portugal contest. <\/p>\n

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Quinta dos A\u00e7ores cheesemakers add spices to a vat of Quinta cheese curds.<\/em><\/div>\n

Beyond the Sea<\/h2>\n

Perhaps the cheese that\u2019s causing the biggest stir abroad originates on sleepy Faial, the smallest of the islands we explored. There, brothers Rui and Nuno Caldeira started Queijaria O Morro in 2012, making cheese with pasteurized milk from Holstein and Simmental cows.<\/p>\n

Thanks to advice from mainland cheesemakers and culture dealers, O Morro crafts a wheel akin to Portuguese Amanteigado and Serra de Estrela<\/a>. It\u2019s brined and bandaged during part of its two- to three-week stint in aging chambers. \u201cWe use our hands to know if the cheese is OK and to feel if it\u2019s going in the right direction, to feel if it will be a good cheese,\u201d Rui says.<\/p>\n

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Pepper-rubbed wheels at Queijaria O Morro on Faial.<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Their objective was \u201cto have a different cheese, a better cheese,\u201d Rui continues, with a room- brightening smile. And it is unlike anything else I tried on my expedition: The slightly chewy rind encases an ultra-buttery paste with savory notes. Rui slices it, but you can also peel off the top and dip breadsticks into the addictive goo. The Caldeiras also make flavored twists on the flagship (garlic-and-parsley, hot pepper) and are working on an aged version as well.<\/p>\n

Though O Morro is a young company, its original cheese is already available in the US at Portuguese shops, specialty stores, and select Whole Foods Markets. Michele Buster, vice president and co-founder of importer Forever Cheese<\/a>, calls it \u201ca jewel.\u201d She adds: \u201cIt is good milk and made very simply. I love the mouthfeel and the balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

O Morro and other cheeses available outside of the islands help introduce tasters to \u201cthe nature, beauty, and clean quality of life\u201d on the Azores, says Joa\u0303o Moniz, an importer based in Fall River, Mass., which, along with neighboring New Bedford, is arguably the East Coast epicenter of the Azorean diaspora.<\/p>\n

Portugalia Marketplace<\/a>, also in Fall River, is reminiscent of the Ponta Delgada market and stocks a variety of cheeses. Co-owner Michael Benevides says that Americans, particularly New Englanders, are slowly discovering the Azores—and for good reason. \u201cThe people are warm, the culture is rich, and it is truly a magical place—a little treasure in the middle of the Atlantic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Curious cows on Terceira<\/em><\/div>\n

EAT:<\/h2>\n

Faial<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Peter Caf\u00e9 Sport:<\/strong> Probably the most famous bar in the whole archipelago, this circa-1918 yachtsmen\u2019s hang has walls papered in nautical flags and sailing ephemera. Everybody drinks tall gin-and-tonics here—order one to wash down fried horse mackerel or surf ’n’ turf.<\/p>\n

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