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CHEESE

MAP: How well do you know your Spanish cheeses?

Spain may be more famous internationally for its jamon than its queso but there is a huge and delicious choice of cheeses in Spain that stretch far beyond manchego.

MAP: How well do you know your Spanish cheeses?
Photo: Spanish Ministry of Agriculture

In fact Spain is the third country within the European Union with the most variety of cheeses behind France and Italy.

Spain produces a total of 29 cheeses that are categorized by their geographical origin compared to the 58 produced in both France and Italy.

A total of 26 of these Spanish quesos have a protected appellation of origin status –  denominación de origen protegida (DOP) –  which is a traditional designation used on products which have a specific quality or characteristics derived from the geographical environment in which they are produced.

This group of cheeses includes Manchego, Idiazábal, la torta del Casar and Cabrales.

A further three have a protected geographical indication –  indicación geográfica protegida (IGP)-  which is only given to products that are require all stages of the production process to be carried out in one specific area. It means that not only must the sheep, cows or goats  be grazed within the zone but they must also have been milked there and the cheese manufactured within the area too.

These three cheeses are Valdeón, Los Beyos and Castellano.

Take a look at the map below to discover the different cheeses produced in geographical regions across Spain.

Map produced by El Orden Mundial

 

Per capital Spaniards eat an average of 9kilos of cheese a year and have over 200 different products to choose from.

Spanish cheeses can be divided into three main classes:

  • Fresco: fresh cheese which has not been cured or aged
  • Semi curado: semi-cured cheese which has been aged for two or three months
  • Curado: cured cheese that has been cured for at least 4 months

Each year,  Spain's Ministry of Agriculture gathers a panel of food experts to blind taste cheeses from across the country and rank them.

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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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