The plain white cheese known as Trappista is considered by many to be flavorless and boring, yet it is Hungary's most popular form of sajt, to the point that Wikipedia simply calls it a "traditional Hungarian" cheese. So when we found out that women's portal femina.hu had tested 22 different variety of Trappista available on the local market we figured it important to reveal the results to the non-Hungarian speaking world.

First, a little background. Trappista - or at least good Trappista - is slightly salty and springy to the touch, and has what the portal calls "proportionate" holes. It is made from milk with a 2.9% fat content, of which nine to 11 liters are needed for one kilo of cheese. The milk is treated with bacteria and coagulating enzyme. After the milk curdles and whey starts seeping out, the mass is formed and placed under a press to remove all the whey. After this, it is placed in a shape and pressed, then left soaking in brine (salt water) to ripen, which takes three to four weeks.

The portal, perhaps surprisingly, decided that the best Trappista available in Hungary is Tesco Trappista (currently Ft 1,099/€4.20 a kilo at local outlets of the UK-based hypermarketer), which is manufactured by a company called Tolnatej Rt. Second place went to the Füredi brand of T (Ft 1,449/kilo), manufactured by Kuntej Zrt.

According to femina's research, the two cheeses at the bottom of the list are probably the same, but sold under different names, as both have the same ingredients, are manufactured by Euro Chees Vertriebs Gmbh and cost Ft 1,070/kilo. One is called Pilos and distributed by Lidl, while the other is Golden Chees sold at Penny Market stores.

Testers examined the color, number and shape of holes, smell and taste of the cheeses. The biggest problem proved to be the holes; most cheeses didn't have enough holes or had ones that were too small. However, all of them passed the all-important "storage stability" test, staying properly bland after being kept in the fridge for a whole week.