🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Greeks

Greeks are the main population of Greece, a country in the south of the Balkan Peninsula and on Mediterranean islands. Greeks live in a mountainous Mediterranean country with hot summers, where sheep and goats find food in places where cows would not have enough. That is why most traditional Greek cheeses and yogurts are made from sheep’s and goat’s milk.

Feta is Greece’s main cheese: a white brined cheese made only from sheep’s milk or a mix of sheep’s and goat’s milk. According to EU data from the early 2000s, Greece produced about 115,000 tonnes of feta a year, and the name is protected as a designation of origin. Feta goes into horiatiki, the “village” salad, as well as pies and bakes.

Thick strained yogurt is the base of tzatziki sauce and a popular breakfast with honey. Other cheeses are known too — kefalotyri, graviera and whey-based mizithra. UNESCO has included the seasonal herd drives of Greece in the multinational element “Transhumance”.