This Bulgarian cheese is made from local sheep's milk (Teteven breed). You can't buy it in supermarkets or specialized food stores – it's produced in very small quantities in a village called Cherni Vit, just like the name of this unique cheese.
From May to July, the animals are milked by hand, two or three times a day. After the milking, rennet is added to the milk, and the combination is left to curdle for 2 hours. The curd is later cut and placed in a wooden box that's lined with cloth.
A wooden lid is placed on the box, and two big stones are also added for extra pressure. Once the whey has been removed, the cheese is cut into pieces, salted, then layered in a lime tree wood barrel. These barrels are left in the mountains until October, when they are strored in cellars.
Once the barrels are opened, the characteristic green mold starts to form on the cheese (which is the reason why it's also alled Cherni Vit green cheese). Its flavor is slightly sharp and nutty, but the flavors intensify as the cheese ages. Cherni Vit is produced by a single man called Tsvetan Dimitrov, and you can find him by asking the locals where he lives – they'll probably tell you to go to ''the second house to the left, after the bridge''.
