Lesbos Feta

Full-flavored, creamy and not overly salty. A fantastic feta with a quite unique story.

Quick Facts

Country of Origin: Peloponnese, Greece
Milk Type/Treatment: Raw Sheep's Milk
Rennet Type: Animal

The Flavor Experience

This is not your average feta. Crafted in the evening from the day's milking. It's cut, salted and turned by hand, left overnight and put into 18C caves (other cheeses are usually at 14C) for roughly 1-2 weeks, and then is aged in its own whey. This is part of what makes this cheese so special many fetas are just aged in a brine, not their own whey. You can really taste a difference. It's salty with a bite, yet is still so smooth and clean.

The Story

Our new favorite feta has quite the story. It's made by Greek orthodox nuns, in the city of Larissa in the mountains of the Peloponnese, in a monastery built by Saint Dominious in 1520. The current ruins in the area are from post-World War II, when the partisans were there and used it as a communications station.

Feta is an ancient cheese that has been associated with Greece for several thousand years an early form of it is even referenced it in the Odyssey*. Many countries throughout the Baltic region make Feta-style cheeses, which they refer to as White Cheese. For centuries this cheese didn't even have a specific name the word finally came from the Italian word fetta, meaning

Usage Tips

Keep things simple with some honey, olives and herbs - these dressings work for either baked feta or just plain ol' feta pulled from the fridge. Crumble atop a beet tartine or into a beet salad, and don't forget about the ever-loved great Greek salad...