Spanish cheese-making traditions go back thousands of years. The smoked cheeses of Cantabria in northern Spain, for example, were traded in Rome in the first centuries of the modern era when Spain was under Roman rule. By the 13th century, word of Spanish cheese had spread north to Britain, where traders hauled in heaps of Mahón cheese from the Balearic Island of Menorca.  The Spagnia semi-cured Goat Cheese is from the Alcazar de San Juan region in the Province of Ciudad Real, Spain.

Nowadays over thirty quality-regulated cheese making regions weave across the country, from the blue cheese caves of northern Spain to the smoky grilled cheeses of the Canary Islands. These regions are protected under appellation of origin controls, which regulate every aspect of production– from which hills animals can graze on, to how humid the curing room (or cave!) can be.