In Crete, cheesemaking is not just an art. It's a legacy spanning thousands of years.
From the Minoans to today, the shepherds of our mountains transform sheep and goat milk into treasures of flavour.
At Avli, we honor this tradition with a selection of cheeses that tell the story of our land.
Our Tirozouli Cheese
Tirozouli – “Tir-o-“: cheese, “tiro-komo” (verb): to make cheese, “-zouli”, “zoulao” (verb): press
This traditional product of Crete has its roots in mythology. Remember Amalthea (the goat that raised the Cretan Zeus), whose horn still symbolizes abundance today!
Tirozouli is Avli's handmade cheese. A traditional Cretan recipe we craft using fresh sheep and goat milk from local producers. Soft, creamy, with a gentle and slightly tangy flavour, tirozouli represents the authenticity of Cretan cuisine. We serve it with marinated olives from our own production and our homemade bread baked daily in our wood-fired oven.
Touloumotiri
It has a distinctive, intense, slightly spicy flavour and is made from goat and sheep milk. It gets its name from the fact that it matures in "toulumia," which are inverted animal skins that have been disinfected and preserved using a specific procedure. Because there were no refrigerators back then, this was once the only method of preservation and maturation in caves.
Katsochiri
Katsochiri is one of the most characteristic Cretan cheeses; fresh, local, with a soft texture and mildly tangy flavour.
The cheese mass produced during the first step of making Gruyere cheese is used to make ‘katsochiri’. It is essentially fresh Gruyere - a soft and flavourful cheese that when mature it becomes Gruyere. The shepherd gathers the leftover scraps from the Gruyere cheese-making process and shapes them by hand into small hedgehogs, or ‘katsohiri’ as we call it in Crete.
Katsochiri is ideal for saganaki - fried until golden and crispy on the outside, creamy inside. At Avli, we serve it in crispy aromatic breading with homemade jam that balances the saltiness with a sweet note.
Cretan Aged Gruyere
Cretan Gruyere is Crete's most famous cheese,
with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)
Made exclusively from sheep milk or a blend with goat milk (up to 20%), it ages for at least three months. The finest gruyeres though, as the one we use in our kitchen, age for over 12 months. Aging gives it a rich, nutty flavour with notes of caramel, a hard texture and golden colour. At Avli, our selected aged gruyere is served with our marinated olives and fresh barley rusk, accompanied by olive oil or oregano.
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