Ossau (Pyrénées)

A handmade mountain ewe’s milk cheese made by small isolated communities high up in the hills, it is a semi-hard cheese with a brine-rubbed crust. A firm yet supple cheese, in that the hard crust holds within a cheese that crumbles and breaks down on impact, and with a complexity of tastes that tingle on the tongue. With a little age the pate becomes flakier and the taste more pronounced and nutty. The cheesemaking process is somewhat similar to that of Cheshire.