Spoonable Serra da Estrela with cardoon thistle's herbaceous, vegetal pull and sweet finish.
Raw sheep's milk Zimbro from Portugal's Serra da Estrela, set with thistle rennet. Spoonable, buttery, herbaceous. Serve with honey or Moscatel.
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Zimbro is a raw sheep's milk cheese from the Serra da Estrela region of Portugal, the heartland of one of the oldest cheesemaking traditions in Europe. What makes it different from almost every other cheese on the counter is the rennet, instead of animal rennet, the curds are set with an extract from the cardoon thistle flower, a tradition the region has held onto for centuries.
That thistle rennet is doing a lot of the work on the palate. The paste is soft, almost pudding-like at the center, buttery and rich the way only raw sheep's milk can be, and then there's this herbaceous, vegetal pull through the middle with a slightly bitter edge that finishes sweet. Perfumed on the nose, almost wildflower. The texture is so spoonable that the traditional way to serve it is to cut the top of the rind off like a lid and scoop the cheese straight out of the wheel.
This is a cheese for people who want something genuinely different on the board, not another brie, not another washed rind. It eats more like a savory custard than a sliceable cheese, and the cardoon character gives it a flavor profile you really can't find anywhere outside of Portugal and a small corner of western Spain.
Pudding-like and spoonable at the center, with a soft natural rind holding it all together. Scoop it out from the top rather than slicing.
Big aromatic personality, perfumed and herbaceous up front, with the cardoon thistle pushing a vegetal, slightly bitter note through the buttery sheep's milk richness.
Long, sweet, and lanolin-rich on the back end. The slight bitterness from the thistle lingers underneath the sweetness for a good while after the swallow.
Pure raw sheep's milk reads loud and clear, buttery and rich, almost like warm cultured cream with that signature ewe's milk sweetness.
A quiet brown-butter note sits underneath the lactic richness, but the herbaceous side of the cheese is doing most of the talking.
Vegetal and herbaceous from the cardoon thistle rennet, with a perfumed, almost wildflower aroma off the paste.
No real heat or pepper. The thistle gives a slight bitter edge rather than a spicy bite.
Natural rind
Soft, edible natural rind with a faint mushroomy character. Most people skip the rind and just spoon the paste straight from the wheel.
Queijo Serra da Estrela stands on its own, but the right partners turn a wedge into a moment. Regional pairings first — they were built for each other.
Sweet fortified wines like Moscatel and Port lean into the buttery sheep's milk and balance the slight bitterness from the thistle. Cider and a juniper-forward gin pick up the herbaceous, perfumed side of the paste.
The sheep's milk is rich and the thistle leaves a slight bitter edge, so sweet partners (honey, fig, chocolate) round the whole thing out and let the herbaceous notes read more clearly.
Video represents style and type of cheese - may not be an exact match in all cases.
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Packed cold for overnight delivery.
Add to Cart →Cold-ship 2-day overnight nationwide
