Taste the Best Cheese Spain Offers

For lovers of Spanish cuisine, La Feria del Queso is one of the best food festivals and cheese competitions in the world. It takes place in the small town of Trujillo, which draws up to 100,000 people every May. Spain is the fourth-largest consumer of cheese and many of the festival’s offerings can’t be found outside the region of Extremadura, so arrive with an empty stomach.

Cheese samples will run about half a euro, and a wine tasting will be about €1. Nowhere else will you find this amount of quality and selection, ranging from the national favorite, Manchego, to the local specialty, Ibores, to the renowned delicacy, Torta del Casar, which uses the milk of 20 sheep for just 2.2 pounds of cheese. Past festivals showcased more than 300 varieties a year, most from Spain, but with plenty of representation from Europe and the rest of the world.

Extremadura is not just a cheese capital, the region is known for its dehesa forests, vital for the sustenance of its most famous export, Iberico ham, sometimes credited as being the finest ham in the world. The black Iberian pigs raised for curing acquire their taste from the forest’s acorns before getting served with tapas, bread and wine. Trujillo might be the best place to sample the ham, right in the middle of its production center. The region is also known for making paprika, Spain’s second-most famous spice export after saffron.

Once you’ve eaten your fill, be sure to enjoy Trujillo’s history and architecture. The town’s rustic appeal is bolstered with stone churches and 16^th-century palaces, many now owned by Spain’s elite. The outlying Extremadura region is wonderful for outdoorsman and wildlife enthusiasts, but if you’re looking for a daytrip out of Trujillo, head to the towns of Guadalupe, Caceres and Merida.