On the question of, what to bring from Mallorca, many tourists begin to think only in the end of their vacation, because, once on the beautiful beaches of the island, they forget about everything and peacefully enjoy their rest. To refresh the memories of Mallorca at home and add to the story to relatives and friends not only photos, but also Spanish delicacies, you need to know, what products and alcohol you should try on the island, before you leave. Admired fine the taste and aroma of these products, you will definitely want to buy them as a souvenir to close people and colleagues. In this article you will find information about the most popular edible souvenirs and alcohol of Mallorca, which should bring from the Balearic island.
SOBRASADA
Let’s start with meat. The most famous meat delicacy of Majorca is pork sausage sobrasada. Its name comes from the Sicilian word “sopressa”, which means “shredded.” Residents of the Balearic Islands learned about the method of cooking products from sailors, but consider the assembly a national product. They make this sausage from black pig meat (porc negre), chopping it to the consistency of pâté and adding salt, paprika, spicy red and black pepper to the mincemeat. The mass is placed in a natural casing and has been dried for a few months in the room, allotted for this process.
Black pigs have been raised in the Balearic Islands for more, than 7 thousand years. These animals feed on acorns and fruits of carob and fig trees. Some Mallorcan farmers enter into agreements with the owners of fig plantations on the walking of pigs in their possessions, where animals eat the fallen fruits of the fig tree. Because of the figs, their meat acquires a pleasant sweetish taste, especially appreciated by gourmets. Locals on the day of the slaughter of black pigs arrange a holiday, and friends and neighbors help them to cut up the carcasses.
Previously, meat for sobrasada simply crushed knives, now it is done in special meat grinders. After curing sausage, it is eaten in several ways. In the warm season people use sliced circles of sobrasada with wine or beer, or spread the pate on bread. In winter, sausage is baked with vegetables, poultry or fried. Due to the sharp taste, sobrasada can be stored in a dry place for 2 years. But for so long nobody will keep it, because sausage want to eat faster.
This is what Sobrasada de Mallorca looks like. The product is easily spread on bread.
You should definitely purchase a sobrasada as a souvenir. On the island it is produced in several versions. Here are the main types:
1. La Longaniza is available in the form of small rings or half-rings weighing 200-300 g (the product is dried for only 2 weeks).
2. Semirissada weighs 400 grams, dried for 6-12 weeks.
3. La Arissa or Rissada weighing up to 800 g (matures over 6-12 weeks).
4. Spherical sobrasada La Bufeta weighing 1-2 kg.
5. Figured thick sausage Poltru (1-2 kg).
6. The elongated piece La Culana (2-3 kg). To readiness comes in 4-6 months.
7. Round sausage La Bisbe (Obispo) weighs from 4 to 30 kg. The product is dried for 6 months, but usually it is eaten after 12 months.
These fragrant sausages are made only from natural products without dyes. They are spicy (picante) or using only sweet paprika (dulce). In 1993, the Sobrasada of Mallorca was awarded the special quality label Indecacio Geografica Protegida, which means, that the island is the exclusive manufacturing area of Sobrassada de Mallorca.
Variety of Sobrassada-de-Mallorca products
WHERE TO BUY: Sobrasada is sold in many supermarkets of the island, in special butcher shops and souvenir shops. The cost depends on the manufacturer, type of sausage. For example, you can buy 400 grams of La Pauesa sobrasada for 8 euros (20.01 kg) and the same amount of Munar sausage for 15.08 euros (37.70 kg). Also in stores, this product is sold in the form of pate, packaged in jars, it costs from 2 euros for 200 grams.
CHEESES (QUESOS)
Spanish cheeses are loved all over the world. In every region of Spain you will be offered a product with a unique taste. As for Mallorca, cheeses were made here for a long time. Since 1345, Llucmajor sheep cheese began to be supplied to Barcelona. Soon, noble people loved him so much, that Llucmajor became the best-selling cheese in this city. Nowadays in Mallorca, cheeses are produced from the milk of cows, sheep and goats. The most usual taste is for the inhabitants of Russia, Poland, Lithuania and some other countries cow’s milk cheese. It has a delicate creamy flavor and aroma. Sheep cheese is made from the milk of red sheep. At the production stage, rennet is added to it, using thistle plant parts.
Under the brand Queso de Mallorca produce cheese in the form of a parallelepiped. Heads weigh from 0.7 kg to 4 kg. Products differ from each other in degree of exposure:
1. Semicurado. Matures from 20 to 35 days.
2. Curado. Exposure time – 45 days. If the cheese weighs more, than 1.5 kg, it matures within 105 days.
3. Viejo (mature). Cheese is ready for use after 100 days, large heads (more than 1.5 kg) in 180 days.
Queso semicurado of Mallorca from Burguera
The most popular Mallorcan cheeses from cow’s milk are:
1. Grimalt – seasoned fatty cheese. It is worth 3.85 for 350 g (11 euros per 1 kg).
2. Natural products company Formatges Burguera. The cost of 450 grams from 8 euros. Hard cheeses can be bought for 40-60 euros (1 kg).
Many tourists bring the famous hard Mahòn cheese from a holiday. Although it is produced on the neighboring island of Menorca, it can be purchased in Mallorcan stores. This cow’s milk product is coated with olive oil and paprika during aging, from which it acquires a golden color. Cheese has a sharp, salty taste. This is due to the fact, that the island of Menorca has a windy and humid climate. On pastures, where cows of breed frisona are, strong winds bring sea salt. Cows eat it together with grass, and this is reflected in the taste of their milk and products, derived from it. The Mahòn cheese, aged for 40-60 days, has an oily structure, the semi-annual or annual product is more solid and salty. The cost of the product depends on the exposure and varies between 11 and 55 euros per 1 kg.
Product of Menorca Queso Mahon you can buy in Mallorca
WHERE TO BUY: Cheeses of both islands can be bought in grocery supermarkets, souvenir shops. Often they are put up on special tables to attract tourists. In many shops arrange cheese tasting. Assessing the taste of cheese, the buyer will be 100% sure of his choice.
FIG BREAD (PAN DE HIGO)
And now it’s time to go for sweets. In Mallorca you will see round thick brown cakes. This is a fig bread. The product is made from dried figs, roasted almonds and orange peel. Walnuts can also be added to it. Cinnamon and cloves, as well as a few spoons of anise tincture, gives a spicy flavor to cakes . This bread is not baked, but simply mix all the ingredients together, make a cake and put a press on it. A day later the press is removed, then kept for another 2 days, during which the taste of the bread improves.
Pan de Higo – sweet souvenir from Mallorca
If you delve into the history, you can learn, that this product began to be prepared in order to preserve the figs during the rich harvest of this fruit. At first pan de higo prepared for itself the simple population of the island. Calorie product is well saturated in the years of food shortages. Then this sweetness fell in love with more rich residents of Mallorca. Nowadays on the Balearic island they love to cook this dessert for Christmas, while gingerbread is baked in Europe. For tourists the product is packaged in a beautiful box or food filter and sold in souvenir shops. The cost of fig bread – from 2 to 5 euros. It can be stored for several months.
ENSAIMADA
And then came the turn of the most famous Mallorcan sweets, without which no tourist leaves the Balearic island. You still do not know, what I talk about? Of course, I’m talking about the ensaymada – the sweet symbol of the island. This gentle dessert in the form of a spiral or snail is loved by both adults and children. Every morning, fresh pastries appear on the shelves of bakeries, and for dinner, spread out from all counters. What is this product?
Ensaimada is a delicate bun, filled with various sweet (and not only) fillings and sprinkled with powdered sugar. The name of the dessert comes from the Arabic “saïm”, which means “pork lard”. Indeed, in addition to flour, yeast, eggs, sugar and water, pork fat is included in the recipe of this product. It gives the dough layering and contributes to its stretching, as required by the technology of preparation. The product is baked in ovens, that are heated with wood.
You can find ensaimadas de Mallorca, which costs only 2 euros
Real Ensaimada de Mallorca is prepared without filling. This kind of dessert is called “Lisa” and is also very tasty. But many people prefer to cook this product with the addition of sweet jams, custard or chocolate cream, honey, nougat paste, cream and even sobrasada. The only traditional dessert filler is pumpkin jam. It is made from all parts of the green pumpkin (except seeds and peel) with added sugar. After cooking the jam becomes similar to the threads that the Spaniards call angel hair (cabello de angel). Therefore, such a product is produced under the name “Ensaimada de cabello de angel”.
Watch the VIDEO RECIPE of cooking of ensaymada at home (English subtitles):
For the first time spiral buns are mentioned in the books of the XVII century. They were treated to guests of rural and urban fairs and holidays. Now, the ensaimada is eaten at any time of the year, but by tradition it is still an attribute of big holidays. Then pastry chefs bake a spiral cake of enormous size and treat everyone to it. For example, in the city of Inca, such a giant pie is prepared annually in November, that it is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Ensaimada is tender dessert. It is kept only 5-6 days, so it is better to buy it as a souvenir before flying home.
WHERE TO BUY: The most delicious and fresh ensaimada with different fillings is sold in bakeries and pastry islands. For example, in Ca’n Joan de S’aigo or Forn Sant Francesk in Palma. Here you can make small buns for one person and big pies for 6, 9 and 15 servings. Dessert depending on the size and filler costs from 7 to 18-20 euros. The small ensaymada has a diameter of 24-26 cm and weighs from 350 to 420 g, without filling – 200 g. The average pie with a diameter of 32 mm weighs 700 g. Its cost is 11.5 -14 euros.
Ensaimada of Mallorca packed in boxes
You can find this product in grocery and souvenir shops. Here it is cheaper, ranging from 2 euros. Traditionally, the ensaimada is packed in beautiful octagonal boxes for easy transportation. This product can be purchased even at the Mallorca Airport Son San Joan.
Other sweets, that can be brought from Mallorca, include almond products: turron (nougat), Gato sponge cake (with accent on the last syllable), Amargos cookies, and fruits in a glaze.
ALCOHOL
Meat, cheese and sweets – this, of course, is good, but how, being in Mallorca, not to try alcohol, because the island produces a lot of tasty and fragrant drinks. I recommend you to pay attention to local liqueurs. The most famous Mallorcan liqueur is “Palo”. It is made from carob pods and ginseng root with the addition of burnt sugar. This drink has a beneficial effect on the digestive organs and the immune system, so it is recommended to use it before meals (1-2 tablespoons). The cost of a bottle with a capacity of 0.7 liters – 10-11 euros. 1 l costs 16 euros.
Liquieur Palo – most popular alcohol in Mallorca
Popular liqueurs on dry, sweet herbs or infused on those and other plants “Hierbas Secas”, “Hierbas Dulses”, “Hierbas Mixt”. They are also curative, but are consumed after meals. They include parts of plants such as lemon balm, rosemary, chamomile, fennel, citrus leaves, etc. These drinks cost around 10 euros per bottle. Often they can be purchased for 7-9 euros per share. Almond liqueurs “Flor de Ametla” have a divine taste and aroma. The cost is from 15 euros per bottle. Mallorcan liqueurs from 25 to 32 °. They can be bought in all tourist places, large supermarkets “Mercadona” or “El Corte Ingles”, souvenir shops, airport.
On the island you can also taste different local wines from red grape varieties Monastrell, Tempranillo, Manto Negro, white varieties – Macabeo, Chardonnay, Moscatel. Fruit notes (apples, oranges) predominate in the taste of wines, the taste of almonds and apricots is felt.
Lovers of spirits should look to the local rum “Tobacco”. It comes in four variations: light, sweet Silver Premium with coconut flavor, golden bitter Gold, amber spiced Spiced with anise, cinnamon and black pepper and dark red, bitter-sweet Black with woody and coconut notes. Sweet types of rum are added to cocktails and pastries, bitter and spicy consumed, diluted with water. Rum has 40%. The price for 0.7 l can be different, but more often strong Tobacco is sold for 10-11 euros. Drinks and cocktails with a strength of 10 to 28% are also produced. Honey rum with a strength of 22% can be bought for 8 euros.
Mallorca is an island, that is not limited to those gastronomic souvenirs, that I described to you here. It is possible, that you will enjoy less popular sweets, meat products and alcohol. I will be glad if you share your preferences in the comments. I would like to wish you, that you can try as many Mallorcan products and alcohol as possible. I wish you to have a good rest on the beaches of this beautiful island and bring from it full suitcases of best products to your family and friends.