Alcoholic drinks in tenerife. Canarian delicacies Spain tenerife wines liqueurs rum

At the heart of the kitchen Canary Islands are traditional Spanish recipes slightly modified under the influence of close proximity to some African countries. The local cuisine is characterized by simplicity, which emphasizes the excellent quality of the products used (fresh fish, seafood, goat and pork, delicious vegetables, tropical fruits and excellent wines), and at the same time has a rich flavor range.

The traditional food of the indigenous population of the island is gofio, a kind of flour made from cereals often used as a substitute for bread.

We recommend getting to the Timan Faya National Park on Lanzarote Island, because only there you will have a unique opportunity to visit the Devil's Restaurant (El Diablo Restaurante), where the heat of the earth is clearly demonstrated. A special hole, 9 meters deep, was dug in the restaurant, the surface of which is used as a grill. The temperature of this grill reaches 400 degrees!
You can not only enjoy this unusual sight, but also taste the meat prepared with natural energy.

Of course, in local restaurants you will find not only Canarian cuisine, but also traditional Spanish dishes(paella - rice with seafood, gazpacho - cold vegetable soup, jamon - dried pork leg, tapas - all kinds of snacks, and so on), as well as dishes different nations the world.

Side dishes

One of the Canary specialties is ron miel - honey rum. It contains palm juice. This drink is orange in color, slightly weaker than rum, and tastes like rum and honey.

Rum is made from specially processed sugar cane. The delicate taste of rum is achieved by aging in oak barrels from 3 to 10 years. The room where barrels of rum are stored must be kept at a constant temperature and humidity. The final stage of rum production is bottling and labeling. Usually this is a fully automated process that takes place under sterile conditions without the presence of a person.

Is a volcano, i.e. the soil here is shallow and rich minerals... Therefore, absolutely everything that has grown in the Canary Islands is mineral food. I am sure many of you regularly use mineral water... The effect of Canary products on your body is similar. Therefore, the Canary Islands have a very high average life expectancy. Canaries just forced eating healthy foods all the time. However, they can not only be envied, but also join this diet. Tourists are very welcome here, and they are well fed.

The most popular product growing in Tenerife is the banana. Banana farms fill a large part of the island. However, it is almost impossible to find a Canarian banana in Russia. Canary bananas are eaten almost without a trace by the inhabitants and guests of the archipelago.

They even, unlike their counterparts of non-Canary origin, have their own name - plane tree. For uniform ripening of the crop, some bunches are temporarily closed in opaque bags.

The next most popular product is tomatoes. There are many varieties, tastes and colors of them.

But the brightness of the taste is a distinctive "elite" feature of Canarian origin. In my own rating, the winners are medium-sized red-green tomatoes (that's right!). Once in your mouth, they explode all your taste buds. They are both sour and sweet, juicy, aromatic ... Even if I write a hundred characteristics, you will not know what they are. A must try!

Then comes the vegetable “ business card"Canary - potatoes! Almost all Russians still remember how to grow potatoes on their personal plot.

Therefore, when they are served small wrinkled potatoes covered with salt in a restaurant in Tenerife, they are disappointed. But as soon as you try the dish, you will understand that these potatoes are "Canary"! Let me tell you a little secret, do not try to cook Canarian potatoes on your return to Russia. Will not work. And the secret lies in the volcano, i.e. in Canarian minerals.

For almost every meal, the Canary people prepare mojo sauces. The sauce is based on a mixture of local spices, diluted olive oil, with the possible addition of sour cream or yogurt. Of course, every cook has his own sauce. Local supermarkets usually sell 2-3 types of "mojo", both ready-made sauces and seasonings, and they are divided by color: red, green, and orange.

Of course, Canarians, both professional farmers and simply lovers of healthy food, grow many mineral vegetables and fruits. They can always be purchased in small local shops - Fruterii.

In addition, each district center has an agricultural market, often open a couple of days a week. This is where fresh volcanic mineral products are sold. Do not be embarrassed if the price is not very, or not at all more profitable than in the supermarket - it is certainly more useful here.

Another legend of the Canary Islands is Malvasia wine. The names of these liqueur wines (due to the high concentration of sugar, the strength can reach 18%) comes from the name of the aromatic grape variety - Malvasia.

In principle, this is a standard dry wine produced by the classical method (in addition to Malvasia, many more grape varieties are grown here). But since at the heart of each island of the Canary archipelago is a volcano mountain (grapes grow here at an altitude of 400 to 1700 meters), then on each island there are many climatic zones, and a varied mineral composition of the soil.

Of course, Tenerife is the very first here, because the Teide volcano is the largest and highest.

The final picture of the growing areas of controlled by origin (Denominacion de Origen - D.O.) grapes in the Canary Islands is as follows: Tenerife 5 regions (Abona, Icod, Guimar, Orotava, Tacoronte).

And one each Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.

It should be noted that the cost of a bottle of Canarian wine in comparison with the range of supermarkets is considerable. But for sure you can't buy a good bottle of Malvasia for less than five euros. Naturally, they can simply give it to you, but never sell it cheaper.

In the Middle Ages, the Canary Islands produced wine for all of Europe. The British, who control the bulk of trade contracts, tried to lower purchase prices, but the Canary winemakers, with demonstrative stubbornness, poured wine on the ground.

Then, with the outbreak of political conflicts between England and Spain, and the imposition of an embargo on Spanish wines, the number of vineyards fell sharply. Further, in the recent past, most of the world's Malvasia vineyards perished, in an unequal struggle with a specific and rapidly spreading pest. But the Canary Malvasia was saved thanks to its territorial autonomy.

Now, with the flourishing of global tourism, Canarian wines have a stable demand that is sufficient for the prosperity of winemaking. For example, in Tenerife there are more than a hundred bodegas (this is the name of a winery in Spanish), many of them do not pour wine in small bottles at all, but sell it either in bulk or in large old-fashioned bottles.

In addition to classic wine, there are other Canarian alcoholic drinks: Rum, Ron-miel (rum honey tincture),

banana vodka (tincture), palm liqueur, "dragon's blood" (with the addition of dragon tree sap), various flower wines produced by the "fermentation" method ... However, the locals prefer classic wines.

The next popular product is cheese. There are many cheese producers on the islands. Very often, the production capacity is low, so it is impossible to buy a certain variety in the nearest store. Here again the "Canarian laziness" affects, well, they do not work for big money. There is enough for a carefree life, and enough. But you can work 2-3 days a week. After all, the Canaries all year round live in the resort. Who wants to get up one hour earlier at a resort to work twenty-five hours a day?

Therefore, I advise all fans of delicacies to regularly travel to different agricultural markets. In order not to stop fresh supplies for a carefree rest in the evenings on the terrace.

This concludes my short gastronomic report. Surely in the future I will cover the gastronomic topic in more detail.

Until next time friends. GOOD to you!

Z, S, Please do not hesitate to express your opinions in the comments. Ask any questions and I will be happy to answer them.

Z, S, Z, S, In addition, you can click on "likes" without holding back. Do you see the icons of various social networks next to it, do you have a page in one of them? If yes, then this is for you! For example, the owners of a page on the "classmates" network can click on the corresponding button and share the knowledge from this article with their friends on the "classmates". Thereby simple action, Your friends will learn more about the Canary Islands, then they will share with us what they still know about the "Archipelago of Eternal Spring", and we will eventually become Canary Encyclopedists. And knowledge is a powerful force that is always with you.

Z, S, Z, S, Z, S, In order not to miss the release of the next article, you can subscribe to the mailing of articles by mail - enter your address in the cell on the right and click "OK".

This means that alcohol and tobacco are sold here at no extra charge, practically for a pittance. In Tenerife, it will not be easy for a tourist who is not indifferent to strong drinks.

This place can be called amazing for at least two reasons. Firstly, there are authentic types of drinks that you cannot find anywhere else, and they are really good, and secondly, there is a lot of cheap imported alcohol of excellent quality. Of the nine hundred and eight and a half thousand inhabitants of the island, almost a third is Russian-speaking, but vodka and Russian beer are not sold here, and, unlike mainland Spain, there are no stores with nostalgic names like Troika or Matryoshka.

In second place in terms of quantity after "ours" are the British, Germans and Belgians. Getting a high-quality English gin, assorted Scotch whiskey or German beer is not a problem. There are very few French people in the Canary Islands, but excellent French cognacs are presented in abundance on the shelves. You will see a wide range of Spanish wines from the mainland at prices starting at € 1. Do not be alarmed, this is also drinkable.

Classification of Spanish wines by aging method

Malvasia and other wines are classified according to the aging method. It is customary among Spanish winemakers to produce and sell aged wine. There is a category of Hoven (Joven) - these are young wines with a minimum aging period of 1 year, usually not stored in barrels, but bottled immediately. Most farms are trying to make their wine even better, so they strictly comply with even the minimum aging periods for wine, and if possible, even exceed them.

The next category is Crianza. These wines have at least two years of aging, of which the wine spends six months in a barrel. This wine is always tasty thanks to the oak from which the barrels are made. White and rosé wines of this category are aged in barrels for at least a year.

Reserva and Gran Reserva are wines aged for three and five years, respectively. Red wines are aged in barrels for a shorter period than rosé and whites.

Rum

In the middle of the 15th century, Spanish conquistadors appeared on the island. After assessing the local climate, the first thing they created was plantations sugar cane since sugar was the most popular commodity at the time. Soon, the cultivation of sugarcane became the main source of income for local peasants, and plantations began to displace even pine forests. Of course, sugar production is no longer the same as in the days of the slave trade, but the remaining plantations are carefully preserved, and rum production in the Canary Islands is widespread.

Rum is an indispensable companion in the production of sugar from cane. The basis of production is molasses, formed during the fermentation of the plant. It is pitch black and has its own name: molasses. Canarian rum is appreciated for its soft taste and aroma, warming properties. The alcohol content in it is from 40 to 80%. A special pride and visiting card of the Canary Islands is honey rum (ron miel). In fact, this is a mixture of rum with honey and a small amount of palm juice, it is less strong, 20-30 degrees. Delicious drink especially popular with ladies.

By the way, it is impossible to get poisoned with alcohol in Tenerife: there are no fakes here, so any bottle with the inscription ron miel can be taken from the store.

Other things to try:

• The Aldea brand is a rum from the island of La Palma, the only one produced from cane grown there.
• Arehucas brand - rum from Gran Canaria, large production, working on imported molasses.
• The Cocal brand is Tenerife rum, the factory is located in La Laguna.

Liqueurs

Continuing the story about spirits, one cannot fail to mention the famous banana liqueur. This type of product is more aimed at tourists. As you travel around the island, you notice huge banana plantations, and of course, you will want to try banana liqueur.

The drink really does insist on local sweet bananas, so its taste is terribly cloying, and its color is poisonous yellow. To top it off, banana liqueur is often sold in plastic bottles and is cheap. Don't be embarrassed: despite the strange appearance and packaging, this is a natural product. Try it, where else will you find this? Here again we recommend choosing the Arehucas brand from Gran Canaria. They also produce honey, chocolate, berry, coffee, mint, apple liqueurs - for every taste and color.

Beer

Spanish beer cannot be remembered without sadness, especially if you are an experienced traveler and have been to Bavaria, the Czech Republic or Brazil. However, as in any hot corner of the Earth, the Canary Islands also love cold foam.

The first brewery appeared in the archipelago in 1924 with the Tropical brand. Fifteen years later, Compania Cervecera de Canarias opened and the Dorada brand was born. Today they belong to the same owner. In Tenerife, Dorada beer prevails in the sale, in Gran Canaria and the eastern islands - Tropical. Canarians are very undemanding to the intoxicated drink, which is probably why unremarkable beer is produced here.

Relatively recently, in 2000, another Canarian brewery appeared, producing beer under the Reina Oro brand. This is a natural beer without preservatives, produced in Tenerife in Guimar, near the South Airport. It tastes slightly better than the first two. The fourth type is San Miguel, ubiquitous in Spain. The choice of beer in establishments is very modest, usually Dorado and San Miguel are bottled. Lovers and connoisseurs of a foamy drink should not despair. As mentioned above, thanks to the large number of expats from the United Kingdom, one in three bars on the island is an Irish pub with a good selection of beers.

A tourist who is not indifferent to soul-warming drinks. Indeed, in addition to local alcohol, the island offers aromatic products from mainland Spain: from wines for 1 € (surprisingly, they can be drunk too) to the famous brandy.

And also, a lot of cheap and good imported alcohol. Free economic zone after all. High quality scotch whiskey, French cognacs, English gin, and all at extremely attractive prices.

On a note:

• If you are going to buy alcohol and bring it home, know every extra 1 kg of excess, you will need to pay 10 €. An alternative is Duty Free at the southern airport, where alcohol prices are about 20% higher than in the island's shops.

CANARY WINES ON TENERIFE

There was a time when even European monarchs and American presidents did not disdain Canarian wines. King Charles III ended his feasts with them, and George Washington made his first toast on the first day of US independence with a glass of Malvasia Canarian wine in his hand. They say that from the wounds he received during the war, he was also healed thanks to local wine. Also respected the nectar of the gods and Shakespeare, Robert Stevenson, Walter Scott, Lord Byron. But after the fiasco of the promising sugar business, the hardworking Canary people did not lose heart for a long time and they laid out vineyards on the site of the former cane plantations. And they did the right thing, because over the next many, many years, grapes became the main article of Canarian exports.

Canary wines turned out to be in great demand in the Old and New Worlds, quickly gaining fame as a worthy drink. Demand grew, vineyards grew and prices for finished products, the ports did not have time to load the arriving ships. Manufacturing flourished. Canarian wines owe their popularity to the aforementioned Malvasia, a wine made from grapes of the same name. The grapes of this variety are used for the production of white wine (vino blanco), less often red wine (vino tinto) and came to the Canary Islands from the Mediterranean. For some reason, it is believed that Malvasia wine is necessarily sweet. This is wrong. There is indeed a very sweet wine, but dry wine is also produced.

Classification of Spanish wines by aging method:

• Hoven- Young wine. Either it is not aged at all in barrels, or it is aged for a shorter time than established for Crianza wines.
• Crianza- Red wine at least two years old, of which at least six months in oak barrels. The rest of the time is in bottles. White and rosé wines are aged in barrels for at least a year.
• Reserva- Red wine of at least three years of aging, of which at least a year in oak barrels. White and rosé wines matured for two years, of which six months in a barrel.
• Gran reserva- Red wine not less than five years old, of which at least one and a half years in oak barrels. The rest of the wines are aged for at least four years, of which six months in a barrel.

Sugar content in Spanish wine:

• Dulce- Sweet wine
• Semidulce- semi-sweet wine
• Semiseco- semi-dry wine
• Seco- dry wine

Wine etiquette is the rules for serving wine, as well as recommendations for the combination of wines and dishes.

• Before a meal, to whet the appetite, an aperitif is usually drunk: Madeira, sherry, vermouth;
• White table wines are served with appetizers, light meat and fish dishes;
• Natural dry, semi-dry and semi-sweet wines go well with vegetable dishes;
• Dry red wine goes well with lamb, veal, game, poultry, kebab, pilaf, boiled pork;
• Before drinking wine, you should enjoy its aroma;
• Wine should not be drunk like water, you should take a sip and hold the wine for a second on the back of the tongue, allowing the taste buds to fully experience the taste;
• Each type of wine is served at a different temperature: rich tannin red wines - at room temperature (18-20 degrees); light red wines - about 14-16 degrees; light white wines - about 12-14 degrees; champagne should not be cooled below 6-7 degrees.

In Spain, vintage wines from certain wine-growing regions bear the Denominacion de Origen (or DO) label on the label. This means that the wine is produced in accordance with the established standards for the area. Each region has its own "GOST" and regulates the entire production process: from growing grapes to marketing.

There are ten DO regions in the Canary Islands, 5 of which are in Tenerife. In total, more than 150 brands of wines are produced on the island, some of which are less than a thousand bottles a year. The once glorious Tenerife Malvasia now accounts for only a small part of the production. The absence of the DO quality mark on the label does not mean that the wine is bad. It's just that more modest requirements are imposed on him. In general, there are almost no frankly bad wines in Tenerife. Even simple homemade wine (vino de la casa), which is kept in large glass bottles in country restaurants and served in jugs, is usually very decent. Such wines are always young and without preservatives, so they do not age, but oxidize over time, acquiring an unusual taste.

Of the wines produced on other islands, the white wine Malvasia from Lanzarote should be noted. Perhaps the best in the Canary Islands. The grapes are grown here on volcanic sand (pikon), setting up a funnel surrounded by stones for each vine, protecting it from the wind. Rain is rare in Lanzarote, and these original vineyards do not require watering: the picon draws in and retains the moisture of the night. Lanzarote joined winemaking later than the rest of the islands, but it is here that the oldest surviving wine cellar in the archipelago "El Grifo Bodega" is located. We advise you to try the wine under this brand. There is no need to specially go after him in Lanzarote, it is also sold in Tenerife.

ROM ON TENERIFE

Sugarcane appeared in the Canary Islands in the middle of the 15th century, along with the conquistadors. The climate on the islands was good and sugar was a hot commodity. Soon the cultivation of sugarcane became the main source of income for local peasants, and plantations in the archipelago grew like mushrooms after rain, displacing the pine forests. But the profitable business was ruined by the same conquistadors who reached out to the neighboring continent; in the overseas regions, sugar production turned out to be much cheaper. Therefore, when the oppressed overseas slaves, from the despair of existence, came up with the idea of ​​making strong booze from molasses, there was almost no cane left on the Canary Islands, it was replaced by vineyards.

The lack of a sufficient amount of our own raw materials is not yet a reason to abandon the distillation of such a wonderful drink. Rum (ron) on the Canary Islands was, is and will be, and not bad. True, today it is produced directly from the cane grown here only on the island of La Palma, here is the Ron Aldea brand of rum. The rest, including the largest in the archipelago distillery in the town of Arucas (Gran Canaria), work on imported molasses, here is the Arehucas rum brand.

A special kind of Canarian rum - honey rum(the label says ron miel). More precisely, this is not even rum, but a sweet drink with a strength of 20-30 ° to taste closer to liqueurs: a mixture of rum with honey. Real rum apologists usually grin, but women like it.

Arehucas captain kidd- the best product of the Canarian rum producers, aged for twenty years in a ceramic jug. The price is approximately 90 €.

LIQUERS AT THE TENERIFE

Tenerife and other islands also make a variety of liqueurs (licor)... Among the liqueurs, there are quite good liqueurs, although these products are aimed at tourists and for sale outside the archipelago. The Canarians themselves treat factory liqueurs with restraint.

Banana liqueurs, which are readily sold as souvenirs, occupy a prominent place in the line of producers. They are infused with local sweet bananas, so they can taste sugary. There are also honey, chocolate, coffee, mint, melon, and apple liqueurs. Liqueurs can also include gomeron - a signature drink from Homer's island made of palm syrup and moonshine. They say it helps to increase male strength. True, it is possible that the Homer came up with this story for their wives in order to get an indulgence for the consumption of this potion in unlimited quantities. Arehucas bienmesabe- liqueur from Gran Canaria, with an interesting taste.

BEER ON TENERIFE

Beer (cerveza) in the Canary Islands they love. Only the attitude to the intoxicated drink is purely utilitarian: beer is beer, it is the same everywhere. Therefore, they drink what is cheaper.

Beer has been brewed on an industrial scale in the archipelago since 1924, when the venerable Don Castor Gomez Navarro founded SICAL (Tropical brand) in Gran Canaria. Fifteen years later, Compania Cervecera de Canarias (Dorada brand) appeared in Tenerife. For a long time, these two manufacturers watered tourists and locals on a territorial basis: in Tenerife and the western islands, it was mainly sold Dorada beer, in Gran Canaria and the eastern islands Tropical beer... Then the breweries merged and were bought by the SABMiller group. Despite the fact that both brands are now owned by the same owner, the geographical separation still exists. There are several types of beer in the Dorada and Tropical product line, including non-alcoholic (cerveza sin alcohol).

Relatively recently (in 2000), another Canarian brewery appeared, producing beer under the Reina Oro brand. The plant was built in Tenerife in the town of Guimar. The emphasis was placed on the fact that only natural ingredients are used, without any chemical additives or preservatives. The market share of Reina Oro beer is small, and it does not taste different from other Canarian lagers.

Beer from the continent is also popular on the islands (meaning, of course, Spain), especially San Miguel.
By the way, it may well turn out that in your chosen small restaurant there will be only one type of bottled or draft beer.

If you want a more interesting beer, go to any Irish pub, of which there are many in the resort area.