The menu, dish by dish
The cider house menu has been the same for generations and is always served in this order:
- Salt cod omelette. Moist, with slowly softened onion. It opens the meal.
- Fried salt cod with green peppers. Chunks of cod with local peppers. Some houses serve it in a sauce or with piperrada (a stew of peppers and onion).
- Chargrilled rib steak (txuleta). For sharing, carved at the table and served rare. It is the main course.
- Cheese, quince and walnuts. Idiazabal cheese with quince paste and walnuts, for dessert.
The cider from the kupelas is included and is not served at the table: you go and fetch it. Many cider houses also have an à la carte menu, group menus and, more and more, a vegetarian option; in the directory you can filter the ones that offer it.
Txotx, step by step
Txotx is the name of the small wooden peg that plugs the hole in the kupela, the large barrel where the cider ferments. When the cider maker pulls it out, they shout “txotx!” and anyone who wants to try that kupela gets up, glass in hand.
- Queue up. You go in turns: the first person holds out their glass, fills it and steps aside so the next one catches the stream before it hits the floor.
- Little and often. Two or three fingers of cider, no more. Tilt the glass so the stream breaks against the rim and the cider gets aerated.
- Drink it straight away. Natural cider loses its sparkle in moments: you drink it right there, before going back to the table.
- Try several kupelas. Each one is a different cider, from different apples and a different fermentation. That is the whole point of the visit.
When
The txotx season runs from mid-January to the end of April, when the new cider is ready to come out of the kupelas. Each year it is opened by the Sagardo Berriaren Eguna (New Cider Day), in January. Out of season, many cider houses stay open with bottled cider: in the directory they are listed as “open all year”.
Cider in Asturias and Galicia
In Asturias you don’t fetch the cider from the barrel: the waiter pours it from height (escanciar), arm stretched up high, so the stream falls a long way onto the glass and gets aerated. What you are served is a culín, a short measure drunk in one go, leaving a little to rinse the rim of the glass.
The espicha is the party of the llagar (cider mill): you drink straight from the barrel, as at a txotx, with empanada (a savoury pie), omelette, chorizo and cured meats. Many llagares open to the public for espichas, visits and tastings; you’ll find them under cider makers.
In Galicia, especially in the mountains of Lugo and in the Rías Baixas, cider has a smaller but living tradition, with producers who open their cellars to visitors.