Saint Agur

Not as strong nor as piquant nor as crumbly as other blue cheeses, Saint Agur is a newcomer in the cheese land, invented in the Auvergne Monts du Velay in 1988 by the Bongrain company in Beauzac after it was noted that sales of mighty Roquefort were beginning to fall off—and that even the Auvergnants often buttered their bread when they ate blue cheese.

So they invented the milder Saint Agur, made from cow’s milk with 60% butterfat, a moist and easy to spread and melt cheese, yet filled with blue cheese taste. It is aged for 10 weeks, and sold in octagonal prism shaped boxes as well as in big rounds on the cheese counter, wrapped in foil to prevent further ageing.

Today it’s France’s best selling blue cheese—and a third of it is exported abroad.