Produced in the beautiful “Star Mountains” Serra de Estrela is considered one of the best cheeses in Portugal. Although Serra is made exclusively from sheep’s milk of two native species of sheep, you might also encounter Serra produced with a mixture of sheep and goat’s milk without the DOP classification. The cheese is cured with cardoon flowers, an indigenious mountain plant, and is made into large rounds between 1 and 1.5 kilos, but can be sold in half rounds with its soft core seen oozing out. Serra is also produced in the velho style, which I tend to think is more astringent than the younger version; yet both styles are equally as pungent and perfectly delicious!