The cheese produced in the Serra da Estrela region is considered one of the best-kept regional treasures, with roots in the long past of its people. We can undoubtedly say that the artisanal methods that survive today have their roots in a remote past. There are testimonies of this product from prehistoric times, which tell us that handicraft production was always essentially domestic and by women’s hands. The playwright Gil Vicente reveals in several of his works that it was women who made cheese from milk by night, by candlelight.

Several factors contribute to the excellence of this cheese produced from sheep’s milk: the specific conditions of the magnificent Serra da Estrela mountain range which is used to graze the traditional breeds of sheep, considered to be the most suitable for milk production, and a set of procedures that never fail. The shepherds leave in the morning with their flocks and carefully choose the pasture for their sheep, excluding some grasses because they make the milk taste bad. They only return in the late afternoon. For the cheese to achieve the desired quality, it must always be made from the same milking.