Cheeses of Kars
A high plateau city in north-east Turkey, known for its kaşar and gravyer, a Swiss-style cheese with roots in the nineteenth century.
Made, aged and sold here
Best time: June to September, when the plateau is green.
Kars sits on a high, cold plateau in north-east Turkey, close to the Armenian border. Its grasslands bloom with wild flowers in early summer, and its cattle give milk that has made Kars the best-known cheese province in Turkey. Kars kaşarı, a pale pasta filata cheese, and Kars gravyeri, a hard cheese with holes, are sold in shops all over the city.
Kaşar and gravyer
Kars gravyeri is a hard, holed cheese made in the manner of Swiss Gruyère and Emmental, a method brought to the region in the late nineteenth century when Swiss and other European cheesemakers worked here. It is aged for months in cool cellars. Kars kaşarı is a stretched-curd cheese, eaten young or aged. The village of Boğatepe, south of the city, keeps a cheese museum and village dairies.
The city
Kars has stone buildings from the period of Russian rule, a castle above the river and the ruins of the medieval Armenian city of Ani nearby. Honey from the plateau's flowers, goose and cheese are the foods visitors take home. Winters are long and very cold, so summer is the season for pasture and cheese making.
A trail idea for Kars
- Kars cheese shops Taste gravyer and kaşar of different ages in the city centre.
- Kars Castle The fortress above the old stone town.
- Boğatepe A plateau village with cheese dairies and a cheese museum.
- Ani The ruined medieval city on the border, a short drive east.
Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Kars" on Wikipedia. Opening hours, markets, caves and tours change; check locally before travelling. If something is wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Kars gravyer cheese: E4024, CC BY-SA 4.0, source