Moca Cream Limestone Current Variations

The Moca Cream is a well-known beige coloured limestone from Portugal. But what is exactly this limestone? Does it have any variations? How can I distinguish its different grades/quality? Is there one single grade or several different ones?

We present you answers for some of these questions, where we explain the main variations currently available for the Moca Cream limestone.

Moca Cream Limestone Fine Grain

Also known as Relvinha limestone, the Moca Cream thin grain is considered by many as the most exclusive type of Moca Cream. It presents a thin grain, beige colour and relatively discreet vein. This variation has a more marginal production and because of massive Chinese demand, it is today the most expensive variation of the Moca Cream.

Today it is most commonly found in the form of slabs, in the Chinese market. Due to Chinese demand, the blocks extracted are normally very large, for export use.

Moca Cream Limestone Medium Grain

The medium grain is the variation of the Moca Cream that gave fame to this unique limestone. It presents a well defined parallel vein and beige colour. The Moca Cream medium grain is also known as Moca Cream Classic, and is the mainstream variation of this limestone. There are considerable reserves of this variation and is the most common type found in the market.

It presents a more competitive price, if compared to the thin grain.

Moca Cream Limestone Gross Grain

The ugly duck of the Moca Cream family, the Moca Cream gross grain is not as admired by the market as the thin or medium grain variations.

This is mostly because of its thick grain and not as charming vein. However, there is a growing demand for this variation, mainly due to its price (there tends to be less selection for this grade) and availability.

It is mostly commercialized for lower range markets.

Moca Cream Limestone Cross Cut (with the Cut in Favour of the Vein)

All the variations presented above have a parallel vein, which is a main characteristic of this limestone. However, the Moca Cream blocks can also be sawn in cross-cut, or in favour of the vein. It is a simple process, the block only has to be turned before getting into the gang-saw.

All the Moca Cream limestone cross cut variation do not present any vein, instead they present some shaded areas, which can be more or less thick according to the original type of vein of the limestone.