Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
It’s official — Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory makes the best feta cheese in the United States.
The company earned a second-place finish in March in the World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin.
That was an improvement from its third-place finish in the world in 2022. The competition is held every two years.
The only entry in the feta cheese division to top Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory was Team Krusa from Arla Foods Krusa of Denmark, which finished runner-up in 2022.
Team Krusa earned a score of 99.4 points, ahead of Tucumcari’s 98.75. Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory entered its Ithaki feta in brine for the contest.
Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory owner Charles Krause said he’ll pick up the award at the Cheese Expo banquet later this month in Milwaukee.
Krause credited his employees for the company’s improvement in its Greek-inspired cheese and the subsequent high honor.
“It’s basically a team effort, everybody in the company,” he said. “We changed a few little things about the samples we sent in. But it’s a it’s a team sport. It’s cheesemaking. I can’t do it myself. It’s everybody doing their job properly. So I’m real proud of the employees, thankful that I have them.”
Krause noted that being ranked third two years ago and second this year shows “we’re consistently good.”
Krause, a fourth-generation cheesemaker from Wisconsin, founded Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory in 1995 in an old Coca-Cola plant.
Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory also makes a variety of other cheeses, including green chile cheddar.
But its feta is the flagship of the company. It is sold all around the country.
“The feta, we sell all over the United States,” Krause said. “We’re in Chicago. We’re in Boston. We’re in Louisiana, Texas. Everything west of here, we sell in every state.”