Queso Palmita is a soft, watery, fresh white cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

 with big holes, produced from pasteurized

Pasteurization

Pasteurization is a process of heating a food, usually liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately. This process slows microbial growth in food...

 milk. The Palmita cheese is usually made in large circular containers 6 feet in diameter and four feet in height. Each Palmita Cheese batch can vary in taste depending on the ingredients which are mixed slowly for 2 to 3 days until the cheese has settled. Then the containers are set for an additional 10 days until coagulation

Coagulation

Coagulation is a complex process by which blood forms clots. It is an important part of hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, wherein a damaged blood vessel wall is covered by a platelet and fibrin-containing clot to stop bleeding and begin repair of the damaged vessel...

. It is imperative that the cheese reaches an optimum level of saltiness. In other words, the cheese tastes very salty to newcomers. It is packaged into pressed wooden boxes prior to distribution. Once the cheese is packaged, it must be sold within two to three days due to the sweating of the cheese from the boxes. Queso Palmita is originally from the Zulia State in northwestern Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, which is the main source of dairy products in the country.