Mandala Cheese from Brazil

You may not know of Brazil as a cheesemaking country, but you won’t forget it after you taste this beauty.

Mandala is the work of cheesemaker Vanessa Alcoléa, who crafts this raw milk farmstead cheese on Bela Vista Fazenda — Good View Farm — a little over a hundred miles from São Paolo. The farm is a stunner, set among hills and tropical trees, and the cows that graze its slopes are just as interesting. They’re a cross between our classic big-eyed Jersey cows, renowned for their quality milk, and the hump-necked Gir Zebu cows of India, which take the tropical heat just fine.

Their milk goes into handcrafted wheels with a natural rind that are about a foot in diameter and a few inches high, and are lovingly aged for about a year. The importer, Essex St. Cheese, hand selects batches by tasting each day’s “make” to find wheels with flavors you know in mountain cheeses, like hazelnuts and butter, plus some that will be new, like pineapple and cocoa.

If you — or someone you know — likes to try the latest greatest thing, this is the ticket.

Supplies are limited.

Cow's milk
Unpasteurized (Raw)
Traditional rennet