Mountain Cheese Olympics

The Mountain Cheese Olympics are a festival held in Appenzell, Switzerland, intended to promote the economic interests of mountain regions, focusing on cheese because "mountain cheese" is considered to have separate qualities from other kinds of cheese. Mountain cheeses are most often made from sheep or goat milk, and tend to be softer.

Though it was started primarily by Switzerland, France, and Italy, who also happen to dominate its awards, there are typically over 100 entries, from all over the world, including Japan, Mexico, and Ethiopia.

Indeed, one of the upset winners in 2004 was Sakura cheese, from the Hokkaidō region of Japan, a soft cheese flavored with mountain cherry leaves.^[1]

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