What to buy on São Jorge: cheese, tuna, woven quilts and what you can take home

Most São Jorge souvenirs are food, so before you shop, check what you may carry home. If you fly back to Great Britain, you cannot bring the island's most famous product, its cheese. Tinned tuna, biscuits and a hand-woven quilt are all fine.

Below are the things worth buying, where they come from, and the customs rule that catches British visitors out.

The island's best-known craft is the colcha de ponto alto, a bedspread woven with a raised pattern. According to the municipality of Velas, these quilts are still woven on wooden looms in two places: Fajã dos Vimes on the south coast and Ribeira do Nabo near Urzelina.

At Fajã dos Vimes the looms belong to two sisters of the Nunes family, who weave in linen, cotton and coloured wool. The workshop shares a house with Café Nunes, the café that serves coffee grown in the fajã, so one stop covers both. The municipality's guide lists quilts, rugs and cushions made there on hand looms. The phone number is +351 295 416 717. We could not confirm opening hours, so ring before you drive down the steep road from the ridge. If you walk down on the PR02SJO trail from Serra do Topo, the official trail leaflet suggests the workshop as a stop.

Near Velas, the Senhora da Encarnação handicraft cooperative at Urzelina (+351 295 414 296) makes loom-woven pieces as well as knitwear such as sweaters, hats and socks, and lace and embroidery. If you want to see how linen was grown and woven before you buy, the Urzelina rural exhibition centre (+351 295 414 388) covers the island's farming tools and linen weaving.

A full bedspread is a serious purchase and a bulky one. Cushions and small rugs are the realistic souvenir if you are travelling with hand luggage. For any Azorean craft, the "Artesanato dos Açores" label is the regional mark that certifies origin.

Santa Catarina, the tuna cannery at Fajã Grande just outside Calheta, has worked there since the 1940s. Its tins are sold across Portugal, but in 2017 Time Out Lisboa reported that the small kiosk at the factory entrance was cheaper and had more choice. The listed hours then were Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:30, at Rua do Roque 9. That is nine years old, so check before you plan around it.

Look for the fillets in olive oil with molho cru, a São Jorge sauce of onion, garlic, parsley, peppers and chilli. Tins are light, do not need a fridge and survive a suitcase. Fish is also on the list of foods British travellers may bring back from the EU.

Our guide to Calheta puts the cannery on a morning walk with the town museum.

São Jorge cheese carries a protected designation of origin, and the island's dairies sell it at the source. Uniqueijo, the union of the dairy cooperatives founded in 1986, cures and packs it at Canadinha Nova in Beira, a short drive from Velas (+351 295 438 274). It has recently added a grated DOP cheese and a seven-month cure to the range. The Topo cooperative, Finisterra, has made cheese at the eastern end of the island since 1944.

If you live in Great Britain, read this before you buy a wheel. Since April 2024 travellers coming from any EU country, the Azores included, may not bring cheese, milk or other dairy products into England, Scotland or Wales, packed or not. The same ban covers pork, beef, lamb and goat products. On 7 October 2026 the UK government's guidance still said so. Border officers seize anything they find.

So eat your cheese on the island, or buy it to take home only if you live elsewhere and have checked your own country's rules. Our cheese guide explains the ages and which dairies take visitors.

Espécies are the island's own sweet: a ring of soft dough, bent into a horseshoe, with a filling of breadcrumbs, sugar and butter spiced with fennel, cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg. Bakeries and supermarkets sell them in packs of six. They are biscuits, so British rules allow them, and a box weighs little.

The municipality's guide also lists rosquilhas and bolos de coalhada, made with curds, among the traditional sweets, and aguardente de canela, a cinnamon spirit, as the island's typical drink. Carry the spirit in your hold luggage.

Coffee from Fajã dos Vimes is the rarer find. The Nunes family grows the plants behind the house, dries the beans in the sun and roasts them; the café opened in 1997, and the harvest runs from May to September. Ask at the café whether there are beans to take away.

• On the way east, stop in Calheta on a weekday for the tuna.
• Combine Fajã dos Vimes with the coffee, and ring ahead about the looms.
• In Urzelina, visit the cooperative on the same day as the Velas sights.
• Buy espécies on your last day, in any bakery.
• Leave cheese for the table on the island if you are flying home to Great Britain.

Can I take São Jorge cheese home to the UK?

No. Since April 2024, cheese and other dairy products from EU countries, including Portugal and the Azores, are banned from personal luggage entering Great Britain. Tinned fish and biscuits are allowed.

Where are the São Jorge quilts made?

On wooden looms at Fajã dos Vimes, in the Nunes family workshop next to Café Nunes (+351 295 416 717), and at Ribeira do Nabo, Urzelina, where the Senhora da Encarnação cooperative works (+351 295 414 296).

Where can I buy São Jorge tuna?

Santa Catarina tins are sold widely in Portugal, but the kiosk at the cannery near Calheta had more choice and lower prices in 2017, when it opened Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:30. Check the current hours locally.

What is a light souvenir from São Jorge?

A box of espécies, the island's spiced horseshoe biscuits, sold in packs of six, or a few tins of tuna in olive oil.