Rock tea liqueur with its bouquet next to 'Sideritis hyssopifolia'ORULISA
Anise or herbal liqueur are drinks with tradition, established for decades in Spanish after-dinner conversations. But let's face it: they're more watched than a Bizarrap session. This doesn't mean that you have to hate them, nothing like that, just that sometimes you can also change them so that those glasses have a different flavor than usual. If sushi is almost as well-known today as stew, why not dare to try somewhat exotic liqueurs? There are many options for this in the domestic market, there is no need to go to the Japanese market.
There are distilleries that drink from their surroundings. Andalusian, Cantabrian or Galician companies that take advantage of the flavours of the land that surrounds them to make distillates with them. Mirabeles, carob, rock tea, ensaimada or mantecados: there are many alcoholic beverages that bear the seal of their region, so familiar to some, so alien to others. All these products, however, have a story behind creativity and work to enclose those aromas in a bottle.
Cream of ice cream from Destilerías Martes Santo
"This distillery, founded in 1870, was bought by my father in the <>s when he heard that there was an intention to close it. He exploited it for several years, but in the mid-nineties he had to stop the activity after suffering a traffic accident," says Manuel Belchi, the company's current manager. Before the break, Manuel's father had a line of products according to the place where they were made, in Higuera de la Sierra, a small town in the Huelva mountains: aniseed and liqueurs of cherries, blackberries and acorns. Classic drinks, made with ingredients that are easy to find in the area.
A decade later, in 2006, father and son decided to reopen Destilerías Martes Santo: "Between works in the warehouse and paperwork, the first bottles were not marketed until October 2008. We went out with the aniseed and the cherry liqueur, which were the company's flagships when the activity stopped," says Manuel. "We spent two years working like everyone else until we finally started selling. It was as exciting as it was hard, but it has been and is one of the projects of my life," says this businessman.
But the catalogue didn't stop at these two types of drinks, whatever: "Later we launched chestnut liqueur. Since I'm so restless and I need to have new projects in my head, we took out the lemon and orange one, and then we got into the world of creams: pomace, chocolate, anise or panther milk, one of the items we sell the most today," says Belchi. The latest addition, a cream of ice cream with 17 degrees of alcohol, which they make with a distillate of almonds, cinnamon, vanilla and a dairy base (cream with hydroalcoholic solution). "We released it in collaboration with a company in Estepa so that they could give us the go-ahead on whether or not it tasted like this Christmas sweet. We wanted to make what is happening happen: that when you taste it, it looks like you are eating an ice cream." And the idea has worked wonderfully: "Last year it was already very well accepted, and for this year we have tweaked and improved the formula, we wanted to refine certain nuances," says Manuel, who assures that he does not stop thinking about possible new drinks: "When I stagnate, I get depressed," he says with a laugh.
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How to get their products: Their bottles can be purchased from the company's online store. They ship throughout mainland Spain.
Rock tea liqueur from Orulisa
"My mother, like almost all the people in the Liébana region, distilled at home with her alquitaras. There's a lot of tradition here, it's part of the culture of the area: people made wine to have good skins for pomace," says Isabel García, owner of Orulisa, based in Cillorigo de Liébana (Cantabria). "She went to other areas of Europe to learn how the liqueurs were made in each place, and in 1986 she decided to found her own distillery," he says. For the last 12 years, Isabel has been running the company, although maintaining the same production system: "It is done in the same way as it was done 200 years ago in Liébana, with the same equipment. My mother came up with a system to put some pretty small buckets that we had at home, and with 24 like that I make the drinks."
The first product that Orulisa brought to the market was pomace brandy, but right after it began to distill what is today the star bottle of Los Picos -the company's trademark-: the rock tea liqueur, which has a 30% alcohol by volume. This herb -Sideritis hyssopifolia-, which has nothing to do with the tea plant, is very common in the Picos de Europa: "People in the area usually drink it as an infusion, to whicha splash of pomace is usually added," explains this Cantabrian businesswoman. "My mother, instead of doing this, would let the grass macerate in the pomace for a little over a month."
Isabel explains that she lets a few days pass after picking the rock tea, "because this way the drink acquires the sweetness of someone who is already dry". "It's a very subtle liquor, because it doesn't carry a lot of sugar or grass. And then, in the background, there is the aroma of Liébana's pomace brandy, of course," he says. In addition to this product, they also sell honey or coffee cream, among others, but tea liqueur is the reference they sell the most. "It's very good, to be honest," he adds.
How to get your products: Orulisa has its own online store. They ship their bottles anywhere in mainland Spain.
Carob liqueur from Licores Grazalemeños
"My grandparents had a distillery here in Grazalema where they made liqueurs with the wild fruits of the mountains. When there wasn't as much variety as there is today, they prepared them with products from our environment," says Antonio Borrego, manager of Licores Grazalemeños. His parents did not take over, but Antonio confesses that he always wanted to recover that work: "I had been looking at a notebook at home all my life with the recipes: how much fruit they put on it, the spices... With these notes, my wife and I began to experiment 25 years ago. After many tests, we decided to fit out a warehouse and start marketing these beverages."
They started with carob and hawthorn, two ingredients that are easily found in the Sierra de Grazalema. "Later we continue with the loquat jopón, which we harvest in November and December; hackberry, strawberry tree, jujube... We included liqueurs with the wild fruits that we collect according to the season," explains Borrego. Thus, until reaching the 12 different bottles - all with a 20% alcoholic volume - that make up the current catalog. "We buy the spirits from a specialized company that makes them for us according to our instructions. Then we let the fruits macerate for the time that my grandfather had written down," he clarifies. The work, from harvesting to bottling, is artisanal, so production is not very large: "The market is very difficult and we are a very small company. But it is a great satisfaction to follow my grandfather's legacy," concludes Antonio Borrego.
How to get your products: on the Grazalema Online website or by writing an email with the order to info@licoresdegrazalema.com (they ship throughout mainland Spain).
Ensaimada liqueur from Campeny Distilleries
Going to Mallorca and not trying the ensaimada is like travelling to Paris and coming back without having seen the Eiffel Tower: nonsense. But it can not only be tasted in its physical format: there is also a liqueur with 17 degrees of alcohol of this sweet. The idea came about, as a curiosity, at the airport of the Balearic capital: "My father developed the Catalan cream liqueur in 1994, which was a success. Years later, before taking a flight back to Barcelona, he saw many people carrying the classic boxes of ensaimadas, so he thought it might be a very good idea to make a drink with this flavor," says Juan Campeny, co-owner of Destilerías Campeny.
But the tonous version of this deep-rooted sweet could not be made in Catalonia. It had to be prepared in Mallorca, so Amadeo Campeny, Juan's father and founder of the company, acquired Inlima, a well-known brand on the island that produced the Morey herbal distillate: "When my father found out that the owners wanted to get rid of the distillery, he bought it and launched the ensaimada liqueur on the market in 2009." Since then, they have been making this drink "with a creamy base of neutral alcohol to which aromatic components characteristic of the dessert are added, where nuances of cinnamon, vanilla and lard are appreciated", as Juan Campeny explains.
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Most of the sales are concentrated, of course, in the Balearic Islands. This is attested to by the journalist Òscar Broc, who tasted Aimada for the first time – the brand under which it is marketed – on a visit to this region: "I am allergic to Martian liqueurs, but I must confess that one night someone gave me the ensaimada. I'm a lover of Balearic gastronomy and I couldn't let it go." Now, every time he takes a plane at Mahón airport, he comes across bottles of Aimada and a chill runs through his palate. "I don't rule out trying it again," admits Broc, who still remembers that "flash of sweetness" today.
How to get your products: There are several specialized online stores that sell this liquor. And in physical stores in the Balearic Islands and Mahón airport, of course.
Xurupía and boletus edulis liqueur from Licores Os Maios
A few years ago, Maica Fernández worked in an agency and Marina Lourido was a teacher. Distilling, which is what they do now, was a hobby: "Until one day we entered a homemade liquor contest and people encouraged us to set up an artisan workshop. That hobby eventually led us to this business," says Maica. Thus, in 2008 they opened Licores Os Maios with several Galician classics: herbs, coffee and roasted pomace. But soon the curiosity that comes with vocation led them to develop more innovative and risky products: "Over time we managed to make liqueur from fig leaves, rue, hops, turnip tops, toxo or two different types of mushrooms: Boletus edulis and Cantarellus cybarius. I always say that you have to put a little R+D into it so that you don't always stay in the same thing," says Fernández.
In Os Maios they also sell their bottles so beautifulOS MAIOS
That restlessness and attachment to their land, the Ribeiro region, in Orense, have led them to embark on a very identity-based project: to market for the first time xurupía, a traditional liquor of homes in this area. "In the past, people made their wines homemade. During the process, when pressing the wort, they chose a few liters at the moment when it comes out cleanest. Then they put it in barrels with brandy and left it to macerate for several months," explains Maica Fernández. At Os Maios they have made three different versions with Godello, Albariño and Treixadura grapes, the most emblematic Galician varieties. "We hope to be able to bottle next summer. It would be a historic recovery because it doesn't exist in the market."
How to get their products: through the Licores Os Maios online store (they distribute throughout mainland Spain).
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