Tingvollost facts for kids
Tingvollost is a special Norwegian company that makes delicious cheeses. It started in 2003 in a place called Tingvoll in Norway. They make different kinds of cheese, including blue cheese and white mold cheeses, all from cow's milk. In 2014, they made about 21 tons of cheese using 200,000 liters of milk!
Their most famous cheese is called Kraftkar. It's a blue cheese that won the biggest prize in the cheese world: it became the World Champion at the World Cheese Awards in 2016! Kraftkar first won a national championship in Norway in 2009. It also won medals in a Nordic (Northern European) cheese competition in Denmark. In 2011, Kraftkar won a gold medal at the World Cheese Awards, and also won national and Nordic gold prizes that year. The next year, it won the Nordic competition again. In 2013, another cheese from Tingvollost called Vismann (which is a milder version of Kraftkar) won a silver medal. At the World Cheese Awards in London in 2014, they won bronze medals for their Edel frue (a soft white cheese) and Mild mester (a semi-hard white cheese). In 2015, Mild Mester was named a "Super Gold" cheese and was one of 62 cheeses nominated for the top prize at the World Cheese Awards in Birmingham. That year, Edel frue and Vismann won bronze, and Kraftkar won silver.
Finally, in 2016, Kraftkar was chosen as the World Champion at the World Cheese Awards in San Sebastián, Spain. It competed against 3,021 other cheeses from 31 different countries!
How Tingvollost Started
Tingvollost was started in 2003 by the Waagen family. Their farm, called Saghaug Gård, has been around since the 1300s! The family works together to make their cheeses. Egil Smith-Meyer is in charge of how the cheese is made. Kristin Waagen is the chief executive officer, which means she runs the company. Her parents, Gunnar Waagen (the farmer) and Solvår Waagen (the main cheese maker), are also very involved. Solvår says they make their cheese by hand, without using big machines.
The company was able to start partly because of a new rule in 2003. The Minister of Agriculture, Lars Sponheim, made it possible for milk farmers to make cheese from their own milk. Before this, farmers usually had to sell their milk to bigger companies like TINE. This new rule helped small, family-run cheesemakers like Tingvollost begin their journey.
More to Explore
- List of cheesemakers
- World Cheese Awards
