Cheese has become so common that it’s hard to think that it’s actually a luxury good. Now, despite that, not all cheeses are equal — some are surprisingly expensive. This may result from the rarity of their ingredients or the details of how they’re made. To know more about them, here are ten of the most expensive cheese in the world.
Pule
Known in its native Serbia as magareci sir, Pule counts as the most expensive cheese in the whole world. On average, Pule costs an estimated $600 for every kilogram. This results from the rarity of one of its ingredients, the milk of a Balkan donkey, which makes up 60% of the cheese.
Unfortunately, today the Balkan donkey only has around 100 females, not all of which lactate at a given time. As it takes 25 liters of milk to make one kilogram of Pule, this directly contributes to the cheese’s sheer expense. This also means that the cheese only gets made in the Balkan donkeys’ home range, the Zasavica Nature Reserve in Serbia.
Cabrales
Cabrales earned the second spot after an auction in 2018. That year saw a 2.62 kg block of Cabrales cheese sold for $16,000. This also earned Cabrales a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, as the most expensive cheese ever sold at an auction. Cabrales takes its name from its place of origin, the Cabrales commune of Spain’s Asturias Principality. The commune’s dairy farmers make the cheese from goat and sheep’s milk, using traditional methods passed down from past generations.
Food regulations mandate that only cheese made by those methods and from that region of Spain can call itself Cabrales cheese. The cheese itself once got sold traditionally wrapped in maple leaves. However, EU regulations have forced the adoption of modern aluminum wrapping. However, locals continue to trade Cabrales cheese among themselves while wrapping it traditionally.
Moose Cheese
Moose cheese can actually get even more expensive than Pule, at $1,000 per kilogram. However, it usually gets sold by the pound instead, costing around $445. This, in turn, makes moose cheese the third-most-expensive cheese in the world. Its expense comes from the fact that only one group of cheesemakers actually makes moose cheese in the world.
Led by Christer and Ulla Johansson, moose cheese is made from moose milk in the Johansson household in Sweden. They typically produce around 300 kg of cheese per year. Three varieties of moose cheese get made: a soft feta-style, a harder rind-style, and finally ripened blue cheese. The cheese also gets served most commonly at the Älgens Hus restaurant, also in Sweden.