La Castana

La Castana is an award-winning Italian blue cheese originating from Tuscany, where it's produced by De' Magi Formaggi. The cheese is made from raw cow's milk, salt, rennet, Penicillium roqueforti, lactic acid bacteria, candied chestnuts, rum, cocoa, sugar, and glucose syrup.

This unusual cheese is sold wrapped in aluminized paper, and the whole top of the rindless cheese is adorned with candied chestnuts, hence the name. The cheese is left to age in a mixture of water, rum, and cocoa, which is the reason why it takes a brown color.

The texture is soft, moist, compact, and crumbly on the inside, with blue, green, or grey marbling running throughout the paste. The aromas are alcoholic, toasted, reminiscent of chocolate cakes and porcini mushrooms. The flavors are very complex - savory, milky, acidic, spicy, floral, bitter, and sweet.