There are few things better than a great cheese plate, especially if that plate is piled high with Spanish cheese. Spain may not be as famous as its northern neighbor in the cheese world, but that is definitely due to a lack of marketing and not a lack of spectacular cheese! From creamy raw cow’s milk Arzúa to the sharp aged blends of sheep’s milk in cured Manchego, Spanish cheese runs the gamut of texture and taste. Spanish cheese-making traditions go back thousands of years. The smoked cheeses of Cantabria in northern Spain, for example, were traded in Rome in the first centuries of the modern era when Spain was under Roman rule. By the 13th century, word of Spanish cheese had spread north to Britain, where traders hauled in heaps of Mahón cheese from the Balearic Island of Menorca. Nowadays over thirty quality-regulated cheese making regions weave across the country, from the blue cheese caves of northern Spain to the smoky grilled cheeses of the Canary Islands. These regions are protected under appellation of origin controls, which regulate every aspect of production– from which hills animals can graze on, to how humid the curing room (or cave!) can be. Spanish cheeses can be divided into three main classes: Fresco: fresh cheese which has not been cured or aged. Semi curado: semi-cured cheese which has been aged for two or three months. Curado: cured cheese that has been cured for upwards of 4 months. Nearly half of the more than 9 kilos of cheese consumed per capita per year in Spain is fresco or semi curado. But many of the most prized cheeses are the aged and intense quesos curados.