Milk, butter, cheese, mozzarella, and yogurt are five excellences of flavour and quality which directly come from the ancient history of sheep-breeding in South Tyrol. These products are born in an agricultural setting among the most protected in Europe, where organic has been a well-established reality for more than a quarter of a century.
Everything comes from high quality milk, which results from a scrupulous attention coming from the individual producer up to the real assembly lines, which allow tasting all over the world the genuine and home flavours of one of the most beloved foods in the world.
The milk of South Tyrol, healthy, good, and guaranteed, is proposed fresh, pasteurized, raw. Its connoisseurs consider it as milk characterized by a delicate flavour, fragrant smell, basis of products appreciated by both families and exclusive tables, which seek valuable and natural foods.
An ancient history
In the early Middle Ages, after the fall of the Roman Empire and spread of Christianity, in the monasteries of South Tyrol the monks bred cows and took care of the preparation of cheese. Just in these monasteries among Tyrol, Switzerland, and Austria the knowledge of dairy production was kept. The constitution of the Social Dairy of San Candido, one of the first ones in Tyrol, dates back to 1875. This story involved small farmers and large companies, until 2001, the year in which in South Tyrol animal feed without GMO was introduced. In 2012 the fusion of the largest companies in the province of Bolzano led to the constitution of a giant in the field of production and processing of milk.
In order to prepare a kilogramme of butter, 25 litres of milk are used. This butter can be recognized for its incredible lightness and delicacy, thanks to which it is essential for preparing the traditional Italian ‘risotto’. In addition, numerous and appreciated cheeses are made with milk from South Tyrol, especially fresh ones, such as ricotta and mascarpone. Mozzarella, then, is a new product which become part of a centuries-old tradition of cheese production, with its light and fresh flavour that meets the contemporary trends of healthy foods, nourishing, but highly digestible.
Yogurt is the most successful product. It is a homemade product realized by mountain farmers, but it win the tables all over the world with its rich flavour, much selected fruit, very limited use of sugar, no preservatives and colouring agents, control of all stages of processing and distribution, as well as a large investment in terms of creativity in the choice of flavours. Almost one-third of the yogurt consumed in Italy comes from South Tyrol.
Synonymous of high quality
South Tyrol, a land of Tyrolean culture, German language, but part of Italy, has always been at the forefront of consumer protection and maintenance of very high quality standards. This marriage between natural beauty and taste is protected with pride, but also with careful marketing and corporate policies. This mountain identity found in milk a tasty way for letting the world know its quality, certified with the brand ‘Qualità Alto Adige’ affixed to all the products coming from dairies of South Tyrol. The packaging is deliberately simple, but always functional, dominated by the idea of absolute quality and belonging to this mountain world, half fairy tale and half successful entrepreneurship. The reference to mountain, naturalness, guarantee of quality, is continuous in their colours and shapes.