Sometimes I am embarrassed that I like cheese as much as I do but most of the time I think look at all of the cheese I have to choose from. How will I ever pick? Then in a recent trip to the grocery store I saw this cheese and I knew I had to have it. The packaging is very distinctive.

Yes, I bought is solely based on the packaging and my desire for a block of cheese. The packaging is both modern and clean a little bit retro all at once.

[caption id="attachment_2428" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Yeah, Kashkaval"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dsc01587.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2428" title="Kashkaval" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dsc01587.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>[/caption]

The packaging is great and the cheese is also very tasty.<!--more--> In a country where the two main cheese are serine and kashkaval, I learned quickly that not all serine or kashkaval cheese is the same.  There are huge differences in within the kashkavals--some are soft making them difficult to grate and rather bland while other brands make a much firmer cheese that grates easily and has a little bite to it. The same goes for serine.

One of the most interesting things about the cheeses here in Bulgaria is the number of brands that make both cow's milk cheese and sheep's milk cheese. A few times, I've gotten cheese home and thought: this doesn't taste like it did last time only to realize I bought sheep's milk serine.  I don't dislike this variety of serine but different in taste is noticable.

All of this said, I do think that this is my new favorite kashkaval--and why not it's made in one of my favorite Bulgarian towns Koprivshtitsa.