With the rise of packaged products, this scene is seen less and less: quick hands guillotine a large sheet of paper and nimbly wrap a piece of cheese, a cake, some cans of pickled mussels.
The contents are perfectly sealed under the tension provided by folds that are little different from the finest origami and the customer receives a very aesthetic package, equipped with a strap to carry it.
Traditional wrapping has lost the battle against plastic.
“Since the 1990s, wrapping the way we do it has been disappearing.”
This is stated by Joan Múrria, from Colmado Múrria (Barcelona), acquired by his father in 1943, but founded in 1898. He has been working in the family store since he was 19, which today has also become a restaurant, and explains that in In their case, they wrap everything: cheeses, sausages and bottles with waxed paper (“which has the ideal characteristics to preserve the product and allow the cheese to mature”), gifts with their decorated paper and bowed ribbon, and orders to be sent with messenger paper. or
craft
.
“I learned to wrap in 1969 and at first, like everything, it was difficult, but practice makes perfect.”
Múrria, who only has paper bags in his establishment, where they do not ship their plastic counterparts, explains that wrapping in the traditional way should be something to recover.
“It is a way to avoid the massive use of plastic, which has a very negative environmental impact on the planet, as we are seeing.
50 years ago, when it was not so common, clients came with their carrycots, what was necessary was wrapped in paper and many containers, such as metal cookie boxes or glass bottles, were returned.
We have to return to these practices, now more than ever.”
Likewise, he believes that wrapping generates a more lasting relationship with the customer: “with that extra effort we are doing something for them, putting a little more love into each product and making their cheese better preserved.”
In the La Duquesita pastry shop (Madrid), the puff pastry products are still wrapped in paper.
“We use traditional trays with their corresponding lace, and we wrap them with paper and a grosgrain bow,” explains Ana Vázquez, one of the three partners of this pastry shop founded in 1914 that has been experiencing a new stage since 2015, at which time they replaced I replace plastic bags with handmade paper bags.
Regarding the cakes, given the most avant-garde characteristics of the creations of Oriol Balaguer, who signs the house's recipes, they have determined that the best solution to ensure good conservation during the transport of each piece were cardboard boxes. .
“Of course, at Christmas, we make a bow for the roscones, which also come in a box, so that customers can hold onto them and transport them this way.
We think it is a great way to communicate a date and a traditional product at street level.”
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On special days, but also on any afternoon, it is common to see beautiful packages covered in paper with orange and brown hexagons floating in the hands of passers-by around Plaça de l'Àngel.
They contain the pastries, chocolates and cakes from La Colmena (Barcelona), founded in 1849. Sílvia Roig, in charge of the pastry shop and daughter of the owner, explains that there are eight types of packaging they use, one for each type of product: “for Pastries like croissants, we make the typical bakery closure, where there are small horns on each side, if it is to be eaten immediately and, if not, we close it well.
The tea cakes and individual cakes are placed on trays on which we place three strips of cardboard to give height to the package and prevent anything from being crushed.
It is wrapped with paper and tied with vegetable tape twine so that a handle is generated so that the customer can carry the package without needing a plastic bag.”
They proceed in the same way with large cakes or large quantities of tea pastes, although both take up a cardboard box.
The candies, which they make by hand, are wrapped one by one and for sale they prepare cones with thicker paper and, for the famous king cake, thin paper and vegetable tape are used again to transport it comfortably.
“We continue to do it this way for a romantic reason, because it is more practical, economical and convenient.
Sometimes, investing the time in wrapping just a couple of meringues to take away, with its paper, its strips and its ribbons, may seem like a chore, but it's our way of doing it.
And always, a well-wrapped cake will arrive at its destination better than in a simple box.
At the same time, customers, and especially tourists, love to see how we do it and also how the package turns out, which ends up being a small rolling advertisement around the city.
It is something unique and identifying our brand.”
Roig comments that it does not take the staff more than two days to learn how to wrap and that although they have recycled plastic bags, very useful to protect the products on rainy days, they always ask if the customer needs them and, by law, they they charge
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