Sponsored by
The journey through Spanish food doesn’t have to finish when the bill arrives. Alongside Restaurants from Spain, the official Colmados from Spain certification recognises specialist retailers committed to authentic Spanish food and drink, offering another route into the country’s culinary culture.
For anyone who has returned from Spain with a newly acquired obsession, that matters. Perhaps it is a tin of mussels opened with a cold drink before dinner, the olive oil poured over almost everything, a wedge of cheese discovered in a market or a bottle of wine from a region you had barely heard of until somebody put a glass in front of you. The right shop can bring those discoveries home.
Spanish tortilla at Brindisa
At Brindisa Borough Market, the shelves run from jamón ibérico and Spanish cheeses to conservas, olives, pulses, olive oils and vinegars. In Notting Hill, Garcia & Sons has been selling Spanish groceries on Portobello Road since 1957. Both show how much of Spanish food culture is carried not just by recipes, but by ingredients.
Few chefs have done more to communicate that to Londoners than José Pizarro. Raised in rural Extremadura, near Cáceres, Pizarro opened José on Bermondsey Street in 2011 and has since built a wider collection of restaurants. Extremadura is closely associated with some of the great products of the Spanish larder, not least jamón ibérico, and his cooking has long centred on quality ingredients and relative simplicity.
Jamón, guindillas and olives at Lolo
The wider Colmados from Spain list spreads the net further. Lunya, Spanish Wines, The Spanish Chef, Los Orígenes and Ultracomida are among the certified retailers, with a mixture of physical shops and online stores making Spanish produce accessible well beyond central London.
A good colmado also offers an insight into the everyday rituals of Spanish eating: olives before dinner, conservas with a drink, bread rubbed with tomato and glossed with oil, or cheese and charcuterie put on the table for everyone to share.
What should you buy? Start with the things that require very little intervention. Good olive oil needs almost no assistance. Conservas can turn opening a tin into an aperitivo. Jamón and cheese ask for little more than bread, while chorizo, pulses and preserved vegetables provide the foundations for more ambitious cooking. Spanish wine completes the picture.
These products reveal the same regionality found in Spain’s restaurants. Olive varieties, curing traditions, cheeses, wines and preserved seafood all carry something of their place of origin with them.
Look for the Restaurants from Spain and Colmados from Spain seals, then explore the interactive map to find your next restaurant or specialist shop and plan your own journey through Spanish food. For a full list of accredited establishments, visit foodswinesfromspain.com
