My guilty pleasure when it comes to food is definitely cheese. Nothing makes me happier than eating good cheese while drinking a glass of wine. The only person I know who loves cheese more than me is Karl. Whereas I try to refrain from consuming too much of this delicious, but highly calorific, dairy product Karl will eat blocks of it with little regard to his waist line.
So with this in mind we knew there was no need to debate whether or not we were going to be visiting the Monteverde cheese factory.
Costa Rica doesn’t exactly spring to mind when you think of cheese. In fact the factory in Monteverde was set up by a group of American Quaker families who emigrated from America in 1951 after being drafted to fight in the Korean war. Due to their beliefs they would not fight so had to leave the country or face time in prison. Costa Rica was chosen as their new home as they could purchase land cheaply and the country was safe due to having recently abolished its army.
During our tour of the factory we were told the history of these Quakers and how they established the factory. For a long time the cheese factory was the biggest employer in Monteverde which is why it is a big part of their history.
Unfortunately three years ago, after being in financial difficulty, the families had to sell the company to a large multi-national.
We were also shown the production floor and explained the process used for making the cheese. This is all very interesting but after an hour of talking we were ready to taste the product.
We were advised that the tastes of the cheese consumers in Costa Rica is slightly different to the European consumers as they tend to prefer a lighter tasting cheese. This becomes apparent when the first cheese we taste, the company's best seller, tastes like a soft cream cheese. After only being aged for 10 days it doesn’t have a lot of flavour.
We then go on to try five other cheeses including, cheddar, Swiss, edam and parmesan. All of which are a lot milder than the varieties we would recognise in England. That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy eating them and we didn’t turn down second helpings when the tasting plates came round again.
Even if you come to Monteverde and don’t fancy the cheese factory tour you must at least try their ice-cream which is possibly the best I have ever tasted. After eating far too much dairy for one day we decide not to wait for the bus but to walk the 4 km back to our apartment.
