Chefchaouen Goat Cheese

The hills around Chefchaouen carry goats rather than cattle, and the local cheese, jben, is made fresh from their milk in the villages and brought down to town to sell. It is a soft, unaged, faintly sour white cheese, drained in baskets or cloth so the rounds keep the mark of the weave, and it does not travel or keep, which is why you find it here and rarely elsewhere. It is eaten plain with bread, olive oil and honey at breakfast, or with olives and mint tea, and grilled or fried in some village households. Rounds are sold in the covered market and by women who come in from the countryside and sit with their baskets near the market gates on souk days. Local honey and olive oil are sold alongside it and belong on the same plate.

What you actually see

• The cheese rounds - soft white discs marked by the basket or cloth they drained in.
• The market sellers - village women selling from baskets near the market gates.
• Bread, oil and honey - the standard accompaniments at a Chefchaouen breakfast.
• The village souks - weekly markets in the hills where the cheese comes from.

When to go

Spring, when the goats are on new grass and the cheese is at its best; production drops in the dry late summer. Buy in the morning, since it is made fresh and sells out. Village souk days around Chefchaouen are fixed by settlement, so ask locally which day is which.

Honest expectations

It is very fresh cheese made without pasteurisation, so travellers with sensitive stomachs should think about that, and it will not survive a day in a warm bag or a flight home. The flavour is mild and slightly sour rather than remarkable, and visitors expecting something like a European goat cheese find it plainer. Prices for outsiders are quoted higher than for locals.

Nearby

The Chefchaouen medina is around the market; the Rif villages and the Akchour valley lie beyond.