A soft cheese made with sheep's milk and made in Navàs is the best in Catalonia

VicTou del Mujal is made with sheep's milk, matured for one month, and has become the best in Catalonia today. "Soft cheeses aren't easy to make because you have to turn and wash them every day," said makers Martí Just and Lourdes Casas at the Lactium Fair in Vic, in Jaume Balmes Park, where they collected the award.

Priced at thirteen euros, Tou del Mujal bears this name because it's made with soft cheese and because the town where the makers live is Mujal, a rural village of fifty inhabitants that depends on the town of Navàs. When the jury, along with the director of the Lactium Fair, Isabel Tutusáus, had announced the award, the cheesemakers' stand was packed to the rafters. Everyone wanted to taste the award-winning cheese, stated Martí Just. After an hour, the cheese factory had sold out all the cheeses it had brought to be sold during the two-day fair, which ends tomorrow, Sunday.

The Cal Músic cheese factory began in 2018 after Lourdes Casas left her HR department. "I made wines, and I still do—they're called La Diferenta (Pla de Bages DO)—and we both had a passion for cheese, so I encouraged her to pursue it," recalls Just, who adds that, with passion, she has also added training, so much so that the same year they started, they already won awards at the Fira Lac. Last year, they won another, for cow's milk. They make cheeses with three types of milk—sheep, goat, and cow—which don't come from their own herds, but rather from local farmers, "always striving for quality," says Martí Just.

The salt from the prehistoric salt mine of Solsona

Tou del Mujal cheese, the best cheese in Catalonia as of today, is made with lactic ferments, rennet, and a salt that the makers highlight: a salt from a salt mine in Solsona that is of prehistoric origin.

The Lactium fair has reached its seventeenth edition with the aim of promoting Catalan cheeses, increasing their visibility, and also providing value to farmers and producers. Its promoter, Isabel Tutusaus, distributed the tastings with the jury over nine dates this year, beginning in April. The cheeses tasted by the jury included soft, hard, and acidic curds from all the milks available in Catalonia: goat, cow, sheep, and buffalo. Other cheeses included cheeses with washed, brushed, or bloomed rinds, as well as blue cheeses (which Isabel Tutusaus considers to be established) and Tupines.

In Vic's Jaume Balmes Park, where the Lactium fair took place, the jury announced the best cheese in Catalonia with a symbolic and graphic formula: throwing gold coins on it.

Finally, the Sant Llehí bakery in Cardedeu and Sant Antoni de Vilamajor has won the competition for the best cheesecake. The pastry chef, Àlex Lera, won the same award in the first edition of the cheesecake competition in 2023. The unique feature of the winning confection is that it is made with five varieties of Catalan artisan cheeses: Tou dels Til·lers from the Tros de Sort cheese factory, sour cream goat cheese from the Bauma Rojo cheese factory in Les Escaules, and Blau del Mas from the Artesans dels Avall cheese factory. Thirty entrants participated in this competition, and the winner received a prize of €1,000, a certificate, and participation in Lactium 2026.

Other awards

• Recuit Pauet, Pauet Dairy
• Goat stew, Armengol Farm
• Cendrat, from the La Gavarresa cheese factory
• Toscat, from the L'Aubreda cheese factory
• Carrat, from the Bauma cheese factory
• Bells, from the El Miracle cheese factory
• Galany, from the La Balda cheese factory
• El Pla, from the Mas Alba cheese factory
• El Ferrer, from the Cal Músic cheese factory
• Saüll, from the La Xiquella cheese factory
• Gran Pep, from the Sant Gil de Albió cheese factory
• Fregado, from the Casa Mateu cheese factory
• The Cloister, from the El Milagro cheese factory
• Ros Reserva, from the Can Pujol cheese factory
• Garrotxa, from the Mas Rovira cheese factory
• Azul de Osona, from the El Molí de la Llavina cheese factory
• Tupí Molí de Ger, from the Molí de Ger cheese factory