Regional cheese and cream stores The Azores

One of the island's three cheese factories. On weekdays, you can visit the factory and see how the famous São Jorge cheese is made. Very interesting! You can also drop in just to fill your suitcase: it's the only place where you can buy vacuum-packed cheese! We remind you that São Jorge cheese is one of the Azores archipelago's best-known specialities, and holds the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).

A real artisanal cheese factory, with cows lounging in the surrounding fields. A small store at the entrance, to taste and buy the cheeses, but also a nice guided tour during which you can observe the local know-how and drink the explanations of Rui Caldeira who manages the visits with a master hand, so passionately! We love their natural cheese, with herbs and peppers. A real delight!

One of the island's three cheese factories. Before entering, you put on a sterile garment, and off you go on a guided tour to discover how the delicious São Jorge cheese is made. At the end of the tour, there's a small tasting session, before heading off to the store. The staff are friendly, and as cheese is the island's specialty, we strongly advise you to stop by and discover the know-how of São Jorge's cheese-makers.

This is one of the three cheese factories of São Jorge: an opportunity for an instructive and greedy break. We remind you that the Azores cheese has an international reputation and is the most famous specialty of the archipelago. It is a semi-soft or hard cheese, slightly spicy. It has a circular shape and weighs from 7 to 12 kilos; it is usually cut into wedges. It has a protected designation of origin (PDO).

The first thing that greets you is the smell of raw milk, and then Ilda, all smiles. Trained as a pastry chef, she didn't start making cheese until it was too late to use her cows' milk. Her cheese is now exported as far afield as the United States. You can visit this small artisan cheese dairy. Ilda produces not only fresh cheese, but also an extraordinary matured cheese. Its secret is a short ripening period, between 15 days and three months, which gives it a very special flavor, very different from other Azorean cheeses.