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  • Burträsk, Northern Sweden, a small village where you can get lit by magical lights at night.

  • And during the day, you can worry about their great mystery.

  • Yeah, somewhere between that house and these cute reindeer and this giant row of trees, there is a century-old enigma involving, cheese.

  • Yep, this big ball of cheese.

  • Well, as all mystery tales, a star storyteller is essential, and today, that is Thomas Rudin.

  • sterbottensost is the emperor of Swedish cheeses.

  • I've been making thesterbottensost nearly 40 years now.

  • It was invented long time ago back in 1872.

  • The maturation is at least 14 month because a good cheese will take its time.

  • It's a very unique taste. It has a bitter and milky flavor, and all do the Swedes love it.

  • They put it on basically everything.

  • But for some reason, it can't be made anywhere else in the world, aside from this one factory.

  • It's one of Sweden's greatest mysteries.

  • We have tried to make it in Falkenburg down in south of Sweden also tried to make it in Bollnäs and also in Åmål.

  • But it hasn't been the realsterbotten cheese.

  • We don't get the unique taste and flavor of it.

  • And, why?

  • No one really knows.

  • Some blame it on a meteor that struck the village some 20,000 years ago, which created this lake.

  • And in turn, enriched the soil with calcium, which affects the cows in the region, which affects the milk and cheese they produce.

  • Ah.

  • Another theory suggests the cheese's unique flavor is influenced by the bacteria in the air of the old factory building.

  • Oo.

  • I mean the air is so precious to the cheese's flavor that when the building expanded, holes were made so that the air from the old building would flow into the new one.

  • There is a combination with the kind of milk that we're using from the cows in our region combined with the microflora in our dairy.

  • If we call that magic or not, OK.

  • One thing is certain, this magic cheese is kept alive by the people working on it.

  • I feel very humble for the fact that I'm allowed to work with this cheese.

  • It's a bit of the mystery that's why it's special.

  • Last thing, can you give us the recipe?

  • No, because that's the big secret with this cheese.

  • Hmm, mystery solved, maybe.

  • Goodnight, goodnight.

Burträsk, Northern Sweden, a small village where you can get lit by magical lights at night.

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