Cironé

For five generations, dating all the way back to 1896, the families that make up Jumi, have been producing the finest cheeses the Emmental Valley has to offer. With that tradition in mind, co-founders and childhood friends Mike Glauser and Jurg Wyss came together to create a new kind of cheese cooperative in 2006. While they maintain the experience and knowledge of previous generations, they’ve also helped to pave a different path that still honors timeless traditions.

From raw milk to delicious cheese... the famers live around the creamery - Chäsi Eyweid - in the valley of Emmental each one is just milking the amount of cows that they can feed with the food produced on their own farm, the biggest farm has just over 30 cows. In the Summertime, the cows are out on the pasture plucking grass, when the cold months pass and the land is covered in white, the ruminating beasts are fed dried hay. The cows are milked twice a day, then the milk, still warm, is brought to the cheese dairy with the help of tractors, horses or car. Only flawlessly clean milk from healthy cows can be used to make raw milk cheese. Cheese cultures are made from their own milk so there is beautiful milk and a natural culture to produce cheese. To get the wonderful aroma and unique flavor the cheese matures in the cellars of Zäziwil, and that`s how all the different types of cheese are made at Jumi.

Zäziwil is the meeting place for farmers from four small tributary valleys of Emmental. This cheese has experienced three production stages in the cellar: during the first 12 months, it is washed, then, it enters the Cironé stage. «ciron» is french for mite, which gives you a hint as to what happens: mites feed on the rind, allowing the cheese to mature instead of suffocating in its own crust. Finally, the cheese is brought to an oil cellar. Think of its time here like a spa visit. First, it is massaged with oil and turned over. Then, it rests until the ideal level of maturation is reached.