This is traditional cheese of Cyprus. This is a semi-hard cheese with a high melting point, which makes this cheese ideal for grilling or frying, making it the cheese of choice for the Greek dish of Saganaki. The cheese is white, with a distinctive layered texture, similar to mozzarella and has a salty flavor. It is stored in its natural juices with salt-water and can keep for up to a year if frozen below −18 °C (0 °F) and defrosted to +4 °C (39 °F) for sale. It is often garnished with mint to add to the taste. Traditionally, the mint leaves were used as a preservative, this practice arising from the serendipitous discovery that Halloumi kept better and was fresher and more flavorsome when wrapped with mint leaves. In accordance with this tradition, many packages of Halloumi contain fragments of mint leaves on the surface of the cheese. The cheese is often used in cooking and can be fried until brown without melting, owing to its higher-than-normal melting point.