Ladotyri Mytilinis 
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Ladotyri Mytilinis is a hard PDO cheese from the Greek island of Lesbos, made from sheep milk or a sheep and goat blend. Its name means oil cheese, after the extra virgin olive oil it is stored in.
Key Facts
| Country of Origin | Greece |
| Specific Origin | Island of Lesvos |
| Protection | PDO (1996) |
| Milk Type | Ewe’s milk or mixtures with up to 30% goat’s milk |
| Milk Treatment | Sheep and goat milk from animals fed on local flora |
| Moisture Content | Max 38% |
| Rind | Dry |
| Texture | Hard |
| Flavor | Strong, salty |
| Aroma | Pleasant |
| Colors | Light yellow |
| Forms | Pieces cut from 5 to 7 kg masses, then molded |
| Age | 3 months |
| Rennet Type | Added rennet |
| Also Known As | Λαδοτύρι Μυτιλήνης |
What is Ladotyri Mytilinis Cheese?
Ladotyri Mytilinis comes from Lesbos, in the Northern Aegean Islands of Greece. The island has made it since ancient times. The European Union granted it Protected Designation of Origin status on June 12, 1996, following Greek Ministerial Decision No. 313058 of January 18, 1994.
The milk is sheep, or sheep mixed with goat milk that cannot exceed 30 percent of the blend. Both come from animals fed on the flora of the production area. Rennet coagulates the milk at 32 to 34 degrees C (90 to 93 degrees F) over thirty minutes. Cheesemakers break the curd, reheat it to 45 degrees C (113 degrees F), drain off most of the whey, then press the curds against the bottom of the vat into one compact mass.
That mass gets cut into 5 to 7 kilo pieces, moved to a bench, and cut again to final size. The pieces go into special molds, are pressed firmly by hand, salted, and sent to a ripening room for at least three months.
The finished wheels are kept in extra virgin olive oil. That method of preservation was standard on Lesbos until household refrigerators spread through the 1960s and 1970s, and the name says so plainly: ladotyri is Greek for oil cheese.
Livestock farming and cheesemaking matter to Lesbos the way olive farming does, and the cheese carries strong cultural weight for people on the island. Most of it now reaches shoppers through supermarkets rather than farm sales. A mass-market version called Graviera lost ground between 1998 and 2005 while demand for the PDO cheese rose.
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