GERMAN supermarket chain Aldi has announced a major expansion plan for Spain in 2024, with its distribution centre in Sagunto (Valencia province) set to open next month and a another one on the cards for the north.
We'll drink to that: Fun facts about your favourite beverages
04/10/2020
THERE'S an International Day for just about everything, and if there isn't, it'll soon be invented – and this week, on Thursday, it was the turn for probably one of, if not the, most-consumed beverages on earth: Coffee.
If you were in Spain on October 1, you were in a great place to celebrate with a coffee, given that ours is universally acknowledged to be among the best in the world. And it remains cheap – wherever you are in the country, prices are fairly standard and you'll rarely have to ask how much it is before committing yourself to ordering.
It helps to know the standard varieties in Spain, all of which are typically under €2 in almost every bar, café or restaurant – and if you're not a fan of the strong stuff, ask for it flojo ('weak') or corto de café (literally, 'short on the coffee'). Otherwise, Spaniards are largely fans of a full-bodied cup, so you may find it a little OTT if you're new to it.
A basic white is a café con leche, which is normally quite milky and comes with the foam on top, or a basic black is a café americano, an espresso is a café solo, and two other common varieties are the café bombón (sometimes referred to as a café biberón), which is espresso on the top half of a small glass and condensed milk on the bottom half, and it's up to you whether you mix them to get a sweet, creamy cupful or whether you down the extra-strong black coffee on the top in one and then spoon out the condensed milk separately; or the café cortado, in a small glass with half espresso and half steamed or cold milk (they'll usually ask you first; if they don't, it'll be steamed), which is milky but very strong indeed – although, surprisingly, low on the caffeine, because the dried, ground coffee only filters through the machine in split seconds, rather than being left to percolate.
You can ask for any of these descafeinado, however, or if you prefer, a glass or cup of hot milk with a sachet of instant coffee is a café con leche de sobre or café cortado de sobre.
Of course, coffee isn't, by a long way, the only pep-up drunk in Spain; Spanish people are fond of their wine, beer, fizzy drinks and, in the Valencia region, horchata, or sweetened tigernut milk.
So we've found some fascinating headlines about some of these, as well as about coffee, which attracted our attention.
Is coffee the secret to a long life?
Ask anyone over 100 or even over 90, or their younger relatives who know them well, and they'll all have a secret or two which they maintain has kept them on the planet, often in reasonably good health, for the best part of a century or even more – secrets that vary from diet to attitude. The longest-living woman, and actually, person, on earth was Jeanne Calment, who was well into her 123rd year when she died – this amazing French lady gave one of her keys to longevity as a glass of wine a day and eating a kilo of chocolate a week throughout her life. So, if you needed an excuse, there it is.
And a Spanish study concluded at the end of 2018 found evidence that drinking coffee may help you become the next Ana María Vela Rubio (Europe's oldest and the world's third-oldest woman, who passed away at age 116) or Francisco Núñez Olivera (the world's oldest man, who lived to be just over 113), both of whom were alive at the same time and living in their native Spain.
The Biomedical Obesity and Nutrition Network Research Centre (CIBEROBN) studied 20,000 volunteers, all of them with at least university-level education, over 10 years, focusing on their coffee consumption.
Taking volunteers with the same or similar education levels was deliberate – so that this did not become a confounding variable, or leave any doubt that longevity may be due to education rather than coffee.
They found a direct relationship between drinking coffee and lower mortality, which applied both in 'ordinary' and decaffeinated, instant or filter coffee, based upon a consumption of between one and six cups a day.
The protection level found was greater in those aged 55 or more, according to the research report, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Dr Adela Navarro, cardiologist and author of the report, said the team had started by intending to debunk the idea that coffee causes high blood pressure long term, something they had long believed to be a myth.
And Professor Estefanía Toledo of Navarra University, who led the research, said the results supported those of other investigations which had used 'rigorous methodology' to evaluate the effects of coffee on lifespan, such as the 'EPIC Study' and the EUREYE-Spain research.
What came out of the CIBEROBN study that had not been found before was the optimum amount of coffee per day for a long life: The benefits were most pronounced among the elderly, and even among those who drank up to four or six cups a day.
In the elderly, the report says, mortality tends to be caused by chronic health conditions, so the key was to adjusting the study to how well these were controlled, in order to eliminate any other variables – and they found that higher coffee consumption actually increased longevity rather than the reverse.
This said, the study did not test results beyond six cups a day, so it may not be beneficial to overdo it.
The results did not seemed to be linked to a single component in coffee, says the team: Coffee is a 'complex mixture of substances', and among these, 'many contain antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties', so it would be 'logical to believe they act together and complement each other'.
Given that the results seemed to be similar with decaffeinated coffee, it could be that the other substances are more necessary to long-term health; caffeine did not appear to have any bearing either way.
“Whenever we promote a healthy diet and lifestyle, it always seems as though we're taking away from people everything they enjoy the most,” said one of the authors, Miguel A. Martínez-González.
“But there are lots of people who love coffee. These data are solid, and are now considered to be scientific evidence.”
We'll drink to that. But unless you prefer americanos or solos, you might not want to raise your coffee cup in a toast, or only if you're hoping to expand your family: According to an old Norwegian proverb, clinking glasses with a hearty 'cheers' should not be done with any drink containing milk, or you'll end up pregnant.
Coca-Cola was invented in a Valencia-province village
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If only the small family firm in the tiny village of Aielo de Malferit, in the Vall d'Albaida, inland Valencia province, had not sold the patent for its drink Nuez de Cola Coca in 1953 for what seemed like a fortune at the time but was anything but in reality, then this rural district could have been one of Spain's wealthiest territories for the last 67 years.
Staying on the subject of caffeine, although the world's best-known fizzy drink is largely thought to have been invented in the US-based pharmaceutical laboratory belonging to John S. Pemberton in 1886, Aielo de Malferit had already created it six years earlier.
This village – which, nowadays, is home to just 4,700 people – created a syrup from kola nuts, consumed popularly as a natural 'chewing gum' in Nigeria, and leaves from the coca plant, grown in the Andes and either chewed or drunk as an infusion in Perú and Bolivia, which was then diluted.
These were the same ingredients used to create Coca-Cola as we know it today.
The fact that the two drinks were so similar as to be almost identical meant that when Coca-Cola wanted to distribute its 'invention' in Spain, it had to buy the patent from the people of Aielo de Malferit to be able to do so legally – Spanish law at the time did not allow two products of a similar constitution and name to be on the market at the same time.
Now, an MBA graduate whose mother came from Aielo de Malferit has launched her own version of Coca-Cola, based upon the original recipe from the village, but 'more natural and healthy'.
Lucía Mompó was just 22 when, in late 2018, she began distributing the drink Malferida, a nod to the manufacturing history of her family's village.
“The majority of the ingredients used are natural – like caffeine, which comes from green coffee beans, and stevia, which is used instead of sugar,” she says.
The only non-natural ingredients are sucrose and other sweeteners; otherwise, it is made from kola nuts and fizzy water.
Unfortunately, it does not include coca leaves, since these are not legal in Europe as they are one of the key ingredients in the drug cocaine; but in practice, several tonnes of the leaf are needed just to make a couple of lines of 'coke', or tens of thousands of coca-leaf teabags, along with a complex chemical process, so they are not the same thing at all.
Lucía, whose final MBA project involved making and retailing Malferida, says everyone who has tried it says it reminds them of their childhood, with 'notes' of ice-lollies, sweets and sherbert.
As at last year, she had been selling it to 70 bars and restaurants in the Comunidad Valenciana, taking advantage of a Lanzadera start-up grant from the programme led by Mercadona founder Juan Roig, although was not planning on branching out into supermarkets.
Beer that tastes of nature
If you can't get to the mountain, the mountain will come to you – in a glass.
A beer created in the land-locked north-eastern region of Aragón is made almost entirely from plants growing wild in its Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, in the Pyrénéen province of Huesca.
Research into the microbiotic life within the National Park led, almost by accident, to the creation of Ámbar Monte Perdido, a beer using yeast from wild microflora in the area, after various biologists collected samples from eight different habitats within the mountains to analyse their properties.
Beer manufacturer Ámbar says yeast plays a crucial part in brewing – transforming the sugar content into alcohol through fermentation – and that these days, 'very carefully-studied and specific' types of yeast are used to enable creators to 'carefully control how the beer responds and avoid unwanted surprises'.
And, in the natural environment, a 'multitude' of wild yeast sources which are 'equally valid' for beer-making can be found, and which also contain properties that are 'hard to find on the mainstream mass market'.
Ámbar says its Monte Perdido label is clear evidence of how important it is to care for and protect natural rural environments, and it has committed to working closely with the National Park's conservation management to continue to study its immense biodiversity and ecosystems and to keep it safe for future generations.
Turning water into wine
Spanish wines are probably the most underrated in the world, and hardly anyone outside of the country could even name one off the top of their heads, besides Rioja.
But we all know that there's no safe level of alcohol consumption, and that wine is not your best ally in a weight-loss or weight-maintenance diet, neither is it compatible with driving home.
Luckily, the wine merchant Líquido Gallaecia, in Cerdedo-Cotobade (Pontevedra province, Galicia) has invented ranges of flavoured bottled water which taste of the real thing, but do not make you drunk or pile kilos on your waistline.
“It's like having a glass of wine, but consuming something that's completely healthy and alcohol-free,” says Líquido Gallaecia.
Unlike the Biblical tale of turning water into wine, this innovative beverage, known as Vida Gallaecia, took years of research to be able to develop – and the wine merchants, logically, don't want to reveal their secret formula.
But they say it is a far cry from the alcohol-free wines you find in the supermarket, and tastes much more like the genuine article.
It includes a white, made with the Godello grape, and a red, with the Mencia grape, and both are available in 'still' or 'sparkling'.
As yet, it is not widespread – in fact, it is hard to find at all – but the merchants say they have had a great deal of interest from distributors at home and abroad.
If you prefer the real thing, though, but in funny colours, two brands of wine have been invented in Spain in the last five years which are naturally blue. Vindigo has only, so far, been distributed to René Le Bail's wine merchant's in south-eastern France, although is said to be available online. And Gïk, created by 20-somethings from Cádiz and the Basque Country, only retailed in stores for three days, but can still be bought for around €8 a bottle on the internet and appears to be shifting more outside of Spain than in it – picture two, above, of Gïk blue wine was taken in a restaurant in Valletta, Malta.
Related Topics
THERE'S an International Day for just about everything, and if there isn't, it'll soon be invented – and this week, on Thursday, it was the turn for probably one of, if not the, most-consumed beverages on earth: Coffee.
If you were in Spain on October 1, you were in a great place to celebrate with a coffee, given that ours is universally acknowledged to be among the best in the world. And it remains cheap – wherever you are in the country, prices are fairly standard and you'll rarely have to ask how much it is before committing yourself to ordering.
It helps to know the standard varieties in Spain, all of which are typically under €2 in almost every bar, café or restaurant – and if you're not a fan of the strong stuff, ask for it flojo ('weak') or corto de café (literally, 'short on the coffee'). Otherwise, Spaniards are largely fans of a full-bodied cup, so you may find it a little OTT if you're new to it.
A basic white is a café con leche, which is normally quite milky and comes with the foam on top, or a basic black is a café americano, an espresso is a café solo, and two other common varieties are the café bombón (sometimes referred to as a café biberón), which is espresso on the top half of a small glass and condensed milk on the bottom half, and it's up to you whether you mix them to get a sweet, creamy cupful or whether you down the extra-strong black coffee on the top in one and then spoon out the condensed milk separately; or the café cortado, in a small glass with half espresso and half steamed or cold milk (they'll usually ask you first; if they don't, it'll be steamed), which is milky but very strong indeed – although, surprisingly, low on the caffeine, because the dried, ground coffee only filters through the machine in split seconds, rather than being left to percolate.
You can ask for any of these descafeinado, however, or if you prefer, a glass or cup of hot milk with a sachet of instant coffee is a café con leche de sobre or café cortado de sobre.
Of course, coffee isn't, by a long way, the only pep-up drunk in Spain; Spanish people are fond of their wine, beer, fizzy drinks and, in the Valencia region, horchata, or sweetened tigernut milk.
So we've found some fascinating headlines about some of these, as well as about coffee, which attracted our attention.
Is coffee the secret to a long life?
Ask anyone over 100 or even over 90, or their younger relatives who know them well, and they'll all have a secret or two which they maintain has kept them on the planet, often in reasonably good health, for the best part of a century or even more – secrets that vary from diet to attitude. The longest-living woman, and actually, person, on earth was Jeanne Calment, who was well into her 123rd year when she died – this amazing French lady gave one of her keys to longevity as a glass of wine a day and eating a kilo of chocolate a week throughout her life. So, if you needed an excuse, there it is.
And a Spanish study concluded at the end of 2018 found evidence that drinking coffee may help you become the next Ana María Vela Rubio (Europe's oldest and the world's third-oldest woman, who passed away at age 116) or Francisco Núñez Olivera (the world's oldest man, who lived to be just over 113), both of whom were alive at the same time and living in their native Spain.
The Biomedical Obesity and Nutrition Network Research Centre (CIBEROBN) studied 20,000 volunteers, all of them with at least university-level education, over 10 years, focusing on their coffee consumption.
Taking volunteers with the same or similar education levels was deliberate – so that this did not become a confounding variable, or leave any doubt that longevity may be due to education rather than coffee.
They found a direct relationship between drinking coffee and lower mortality, which applied both in 'ordinary' and decaffeinated, instant or filter coffee, based upon a consumption of between one and six cups a day.
The protection level found was greater in those aged 55 or more, according to the research report, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Dr Adela Navarro, cardiologist and author of the report, said the team had started by intending to debunk the idea that coffee causes high blood pressure long term, something they had long believed to be a myth.
And Professor Estefanía Toledo of Navarra University, who led the research, said the results supported those of other investigations which had used 'rigorous methodology' to evaluate the effects of coffee on lifespan, such as the 'EPIC Study' and the EUREYE-Spain research.
What came out of the CIBEROBN study that had not been found before was the optimum amount of coffee per day for a long life: The benefits were most pronounced among the elderly, and even among those who drank up to four or six cups a day.
In the elderly, the report says, mortality tends to be caused by chronic health conditions, so the key was to adjusting the study to how well these were controlled, in order to eliminate any other variables – and they found that higher coffee consumption actually increased longevity rather than the reverse.
This said, the study did not test results beyond six cups a day, so it may not be beneficial to overdo it.
The results did not seemed to be linked to a single component in coffee, says the team: Coffee is a 'complex mixture of substances', and among these, 'many contain antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties', so it would be 'logical to believe they act together and complement each other'.
Given that the results seemed to be similar with decaffeinated coffee, it could be that the other substances are more necessary to long-term health; caffeine did not appear to have any bearing either way.
“Whenever we promote a healthy diet and lifestyle, it always seems as though we're taking away from people everything they enjoy the most,” said one of the authors, Miguel A. Martínez-González.
“But there are lots of people who love coffee. These data are solid, and are now considered to be scientific evidence.”
We'll drink to that. But unless you prefer americanos or solos, you might not want to raise your coffee cup in a toast, or only if you're hoping to expand your family: According to an old Norwegian proverb, clinking glasses with a hearty 'cheers' should not be done with any drink containing milk, or you'll end up pregnant.
Coca-Cola was invented in a Valencia-province village
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If only the small family firm in the tiny village of Aielo de Malferit, in the Vall d'Albaida, inland Valencia province, had not sold the patent for its drink Nuez de Cola Coca in 1953 for what seemed like a fortune at the time but was anything but in reality, then this rural district could have been one of Spain's wealthiest territories for the last 67 years.
Staying on the subject of caffeine, although the world's best-known fizzy drink is largely thought to have been invented in the US-based pharmaceutical laboratory belonging to John S. Pemberton in 1886, Aielo de Malferit had already created it six years earlier.
This village – which, nowadays, is home to just 4,700 people – created a syrup from kola nuts, consumed popularly as a natural 'chewing gum' in Nigeria, and leaves from the coca plant, grown in the Andes and either chewed or drunk as an infusion in Perú and Bolivia, which was then diluted.
These were the same ingredients used to create Coca-Cola as we know it today.
The fact that the two drinks were so similar as to be almost identical meant that when Coca-Cola wanted to distribute its 'invention' in Spain, it had to buy the patent from the people of Aielo de Malferit to be able to do so legally – Spanish law at the time did not allow two products of a similar constitution and name to be on the market at the same time.
Now, an MBA graduate whose mother came from Aielo de Malferit has launched her own version of Coca-Cola, based upon the original recipe from the village, but 'more natural and healthy'.
Lucía Mompó was just 22 when, in late 2018, she began distributing the drink Malferida, a nod to the manufacturing history of her family's village.
“The majority of the ingredients used are natural – like caffeine, which comes from green coffee beans, and stevia, which is used instead of sugar,” she says.
The only non-natural ingredients are sucrose and other sweeteners; otherwise, it is made from kola nuts and fizzy water.
Unfortunately, it does not include coca leaves, since these are not legal in Europe as they are one of the key ingredients in the drug cocaine; but in practice, several tonnes of the leaf are needed just to make a couple of lines of 'coke', or tens of thousands of coca-leaf teabags, along with a complex chemical process, so they are not the same thing at all.
Lucía, whose final MBA project involved making and retailing Malferida, says everyone who has tried it says it reminds them of their childhood, with 'notes' of ice-lollies, sweets and sherbert.
As at last year, she had been selling it to 70 bars and restaurants in the Comunidad Valenciana, taking advantage of a Lanzadera start-up grant from the programme led by Mercadona founder Juan Roig, although was not planning on branching out into supermarkets.
Beer that tastes of nature
If you can't get to the mountain, the mountain will come to you – in a glass.
A beer created in the land-locked north-eastern region of Aragón is made almost entirely from plants growing wild in its Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, in the Pyrénéen province of Huesca.
Research into the microbiotic life within the National Park led, almost by accident, to the creation of Ámbar Monte Perdido, a beer using yeast from wild microflora in the area, after various biologists collected samples from eight different habitats within the mountains to analyse their properties.
Beer manufacturer Ámbar says yeast plays a crucial part in brewing – transforming the sugar content into alcohol through fermentation – and that these days, 'very carefully-studied and specific' types of yeast are used to enable creators to 'carefully control how the beer responds and avoid unwanted surprises'.
And, in the natural environment, a 'multitude' of wild yeast sources which are 'equally valid' for beer-making can be found, and which also contain properties that are 'hard to find on the mainstream mass market'.
Ámbar says its Monte Perdido label is clear evidence of how important it is to care for and protect natural rural environments, and it has committed to working closely with the National Park's conservation management to continue to study its immense biodiversity and ecosystems and to keep it safe for future generations.
Turning water into wine
Spanish wines are probably the most underrated in the world, and hardly anyone outside of the country could even name one off the top of their heads, besides Rioja.
But we all know that there's no safe level of alcohol consumption, and that wine is not your best ally in a weight-loss or weight-maintenance diet, neither is it compatible with driving home.
Luckily, the wine merchant Líquido Gallaecia, in Cerdedo-Cotobade (Pontevedra province, Galicia) has invented ranges of flavoured bottled water which taste of the real thing, but do not make you drunk or pile kilos on your waistline.
“It's like having a glass of wine, but consuming something that's completely healthy and alcohol-free,” says Líquido Gallaecia.
Unlike the Biblical tale of turning water into wine, this innovative beverage, known as Vida Gallaecia, took years of research to be able to develop – and the wine merchants, logically, don't want to reveal their secret formula.
But they say it is a far cry from the alcohol-free wines you find in the supermarket, and tastes much more like the genuine article.
It includes a white, made with the Godello grape, and a red, with the Mencia grape, and both are available in 'still' or 'sparkling'.
As yet, it is not widespread – in fact, it is hard to find at all – but the merchants say they have had a great deal of interest from distributors at home and abroad.
If you prefer the real thing, though, but in funny colours, two brands of wine have been invented in Spain in the last five years which are naturally blue. Vindigo has only, so far, been distributed to René Le Bail's wine merchant's in south-eastern France, although is said to be available online. And Gïk, created by 20-somethings from Cádiz and the Basque Country, only retailed in stores for three days, but can still be bought for around €8 a bottle on the internet and appears to be shifting more outside of Spain than in it – picture two, above, of Gïk blue wine was taken in a restaurant in Valletta, Malta.
Related Topics
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