Cheese champions: Malaga company makes the world's best cured goat's cheese

"Best Spanish cheese in the competition". This is how the Concours International de Lyon - a major, global gourmet food and drink competition held annually in this French city - described the cured goat's cheese produced by the Antequera cheesemakers under the brand El Pastor del Torcal. Not only has it won the gold medal but also the title proclaiming it to be the best in the world in the goat's cheese category. This competition involves a lot of tasting: almost 2,000 to be exact. The event also presents awards for the best wines, beers, cold-cut and cured meats from all over the world.

A total of 2,531 samples, including 1,981 cheeses and dairy products and 550 cold-cut meats and charcuterie, were evaluated by professional tasters and experienced amateurs, and 841 gold and silver medals were awarded. Among them was the cheesemakers of El Pastor del Torcal, which once again won over the competition's judges in the wake of having won gold medals for the last two years for another of its cheeses, proving once more that its products are unrivalled.

On this occasion the company has won these accolades with Flor del Torcal, a cured goat's cheese coated with blossom honey and flower petals. According to the brand's own description, "the rose, orange blossom, lavender, marigold and jasmine petals, among others, give this cheese an aroma and flavour to its rind that is delightful as it evokes our mountain pastures. It provokes a sensory stimulation in the mouth as well as to the eyes due to its flavour and appearance." Price? From 107 for a huge, three-kilo truckle to around 30 euros for a quarter.

Quesos El Pastor del Torcal began its journey at the end of 2021, as a value-added commitment by Serrycamp, a company that has been producing and marketing Andalusian goat's milk for more than ten years. As part of the Sabor a Málaga label for locally produced gourmet food and drink, they have a cheese dairy of more than 1,500 square metres in Antequera's industrial estate for the maturing and production of their cheeses, with a production capacity of up to five million litres of goat's milk from their more than 70 farms spread throughout the different provinces of Andalucía.

This gourmet food and drink competition takes place every year in Lyon, the city regarded as the capital of French gastronomy. With the support of renowned partners such as Les Toques Blanches Lyonnaises, the Association des Sommeliers de Lyon and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional government, the city of Lyon and Only Lyon, the competition involves the tasting of thousands of products from various countries. It then assigns its awards to what the judges regard as the world's best wines, beers and spirits, as well as the best cheeses, dairy products, cold meats and charcuterie from all over the world.