Made from Girsey cow's milk, a cross between the heat-tolerant Indian Gir zebu, and the famous high butterfat Jersey. 

Aged for up to 12 months on Brazilian pine boards in the stone cellar of the solar powered Bento Mineiro family farm, Bela Vista Fazenda. Cheesemaker Vanessa Alcoléa has been making Mandala for about a decade now but in collaboration with Essex Street Cheese Importers, batches are available in the US as of June '25. 

Wheels are about 20lbs, with a thin, golden-brown brine-washed natural rind that smells of damp stones and earth. The paste is dense but pliant, with slight openings in the paste. Flavors are sweet and nutty, like it's alpine-stye inspirations, but take on a completely unique expression due to subtropical hilly pleateau and humidity of the region. Notes of cocoa, ripe pineapple and other tropical fruit and brazil nuts. 

The very first raw milk, farmstead cheese from Brazil has us all very excited!