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Tesco to bring British tea and biscuits to Spanish stores

Tesco is to stock a range of products in El Corte Inglés under a new deal between the British supermarket and Spain’s largest department store.

Tesco to bring British tea and biscuits to Spanish stores
Stock photo of Tesco biscuits: No frills / Flickr

The reciprocal agreement will see between 50 and 60 traditional British products stocked in a select number of Corte Inglés stores across Spain.

The products will include specialty teas, a range of biscuits and Tesco brand cereals including granola.

In return Tesco will expand on a pilot scheme to stock some 48 products under El Corte Inglés label including sherry vinegar, sliced meats and extra virgin olive oil.

“We’re always looking to offer customers new and exciting products as part of our world food range,” said a statement sent to The Local from Tesco.

“We’re currently trialling products from El Corte Inglés in a small number of stores and are looking forward to seeing how customers respond.”

The deal is just the latest sign that Spanish palates are warming to British food, once broadly dismissed as tasteless mush.

Where once specialist overseas stores could only be found in expat colonies on the Costas, where retired Brits stocked up on Marmite, teabags and jars of Branston’s pickle, now such products appear in the gourmet world food sections of many large supermarkets.

UK discount chain Poundland has opened outlets across Spain stocking well-known British brands under their “everything for €1.50” slogan.

Named Dealz, the Spanish franchise marked the first expansion by Poundland into continental Europe.

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FOOD AND DRINK

Why do they pour cider like that in Spain’s Asturias?

The green northern region’s drink of choice is cider but it’s the method waiters have of pouring it from a great height that catches the attention of ‘out-ciders’.

Why do they pour cider like that in Spain's Asturias?

They say Asturian blood is 50 percent water and 50 percent cider, and given the 40 million bottles produced every year in the region, it doesn’t seem too hard to believe.

However, it’s the method of serving cider in Asturias which really captures the imagination. 

The bottle will either come attached to a contraption which sucks up the cider and splurts it into a wide but thin-rimmed glass.

Or the waiter will come out every few minutes to grab your bottle and glass, lift the former high up with one arm and the latter down low around waist height before pouring some of the cider into the glass from at an arm’s length. 

There’s even a verb for this action – escanciar – to decant.  

The objective is for the cider to be shaken and aerated so that its natural carbon dioxide ‘awakens’.

When it is poured from above and hits the glass, carbon dioxide bubbles are produced that make the aroma of the cider come alive.

It’s good and normal for there to be splashback when pouring Asturian cider, but the aim is still to get most of it in the glass. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

These bubbles go away quickly so once served, the customer should quickly drink the culín (small bottom) up in one swig. 

The action of escanciar imitates how cider would be traditionally served when it went directly from big oak barrels to the glass, as cider has been the drink of choice in Asturians since before Roman times. 

READ ALSO: Why Spaniards’ habit of drinking alcohol every day is surprisingly healthy

This is after all natural cider which doesn’t come with the sugar, additives and pre-carbonated mixes of brands such as Strongbow, Magners or Kopparberg.

“It took me some time to get the hang of pouring cider, I missed the mark a lot, and my arm used to get very tired at first,” a Latin American waitress at a bar in Gijón told The Local Spain. 

Many sidrerías (cider houses) and restaurants have cylindrical tubes on wheels where escanciadores (the waiters in charge of pouring cider) can put the glass in to avoid making a mess on the floor or splashing customers, as there is always some splatter even if they don’t completely miss the mark. 

A waiter pours cider for customers at a cider bar in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo (Photo by RAFA RIVAS / AFP)

The more old-school chigres (cider house in Asturian) prefer to have sawdust all over the floor to absorb the spilt cider.

To pour, tirar (throw) or escanciar (decant) cider like an Asturian, you should tilt the bottle slowly from above and aim for the cider to hit the top part of the inside side of the glass, which has to be held at a 45-degree angle. It’s this that brings out the effervescence out in la sidra natural.  

So when you visit the beautiful region of Asturias and you tuck into their famously ample servings of fabada asturiana (Asturian bean stew) or cachopo (meat, cheese and ham all together in breadcrumbs), washed down with one or two bottles of sidra, now you’ll understand what’s behind this eye-catching tradition.

READ ALSO: Eight fascinating facts about Spain’s Asturias region

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