Kraftkar – probably the best cheese on the planet (Photo: tingvollost.no)

To everyone’s pleasant surprise: The 29th annual World Cheese Awards, held in the Basque Country city of San Sebastian in November 2016, crowned the Norwegian blue cheese “Kraftkar” (English: “Strongman”) the best cheese on the planet.

The cheese is produced by Tingvollost, a small scale cheese producer established in 2003 on the Saghaug farm in Tingvoll, a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The farm is dating back to the year 1303 and today four generations live together on Saghaug.

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The Saghaug farm in Tingvoll: Clean air, fresh milk, delicious cheese. (Photo: tingvollost.no)

Only cow’s milk from the farm is used for cheese making and in addition to milk Kraftkar is added some cream. The maturation period is 6 months.

Champion of Champions

Some 266 judges at the San Sebastian’s Kursaal Congress Centre representing 26 different nations assessed 3,021 cheeses from 31 countries.

Sixty Six separate teams awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold awards to cheeses in many different styles before each choosing a Super Gold to be judged by a Super Jury.

The Super Jury with cheese experts from the UK, South Africa, Japan, Mexico, France, Italy and Sweden, narrowed down the selection to just 16.

Nick Trioros of Canada’s Olympic Cheese, who championed the cheese in the final judging sessions, said:

– The mould in this cheese (Kraftkar) is developed really nicely. It is very evenly distributed. On top of that, the texture is great: when it crumbles you get a soft creaminess. And on the finish, it coats your tongue with a real soft landing.

In addition to be awarded the 2016 World Champion, Kraftkar also was named Champion of Champions, the world’s best cheese through the competition’s 29 years long history.

Click here for the results from World Cheese Awards.

Text by: ThorNews

Categories: Central Norway, Culinary Surprises, Traditional Food