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FOOD AND DRINK

Five traditional tipples you will only find in Spain

What’s the first drink that springs to mind when you think of Spain? Is it sangría?

Published: 1 August 2019 09:16 CEST
Five traditional tipples you will only find in Spain
Photo: OscarDC/Flickr

 While a nice jug of refreshing fruity sangría can be delicious, especially when shared with friends and accompanied by a paella, it is not a drink commonly enjoyed by most Spaniards and rarely appears on menus except in the most touristy of bars and restaurants.

So forget about sangria. Instead try some of the more typical drinks enjoyed by locals that you will only find on the menu in Spain.

 Tinto de Verano


Photo: Indra Galbo/Flickr

 As we established a few weeks ago in a readers poll, locals prefer tinto de verano to sangria as a refreshing summer drink, it’s a simple mix of red wine and either lemonade (limon) or casera(that sweetened soda the Spanish are so fond of).

There are also white wine and rosé versions.

READ MORE Daily dilemmas: Sangría or tinto de verano for the perfect Spanish summer drink 

Calimocho or Kalimotxo

Photo: Sarah H/Flickr

Beloved of students any time of year, this drink may sound revolting to wine connoisseurs but is the ultimate refreshing drink for those summer festivals in the pueblo. Popular at Basque festivals and the drink of choice at the famous San Fermin running of the bulls festival, it is usually served over ice in big plastic cups known in Spanish as ‘maxi’.

The mix of (cheap) red wine and coca-cola is the perfect pick me up, providing a caffeine boost alongside the alcohol intake.

Rebujito

Photo: AFP

This is the Andalusian version of the above, mixing the locally produced pale dry sherry – fino or manzanilla – with lemonade or casera. Served over lots of ice, this is the drink of choice at the Feria de Seville.

Orujo


Photo: OscarDC/Flickr

This strong distilled liqueur made from the residue of grapes originates in Galicia and comes in several varieties, from the bitter green tinged Licor de Hierbas to the creamy Bailey’s like Crema de Orujo. Often served up free at the end of a long meal, orujo has an alcohol percentage of between 37 and 45 percent.

Queimada
 

This brings us to the traditional Galician brew of queimada, a hot punch made from orujo mixed with herbs, sugar, lemon peel, apple and coffee beans. It is brewed in a special clay pot and stirred with a ladle while incantations banishing evil are chanted over it as it burns with a blue flame.

Quite an experience, especially when accompanied by Galician bagpipes!

Pacharán or Patxaran


Photo: David Hedz / Flickr

A liqueur made from sloe berries from the blackthorn bush, Pacharán or Patxaran in Basque is almost exclusively made in Navarre where it dates from the middle ages. A deep pink colour, Patxaran is usully served on its own and must be served cold, usually over one cube of ice (any more risks diluting the intense flavour).

READ MORE: The best Spanish treats to keep you cool in a heatwave 

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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’.

Published: 29 February 2024 15:40 CET
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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