Pimentón de la Vera

Appearance & taste

Pimentón de la Vera is ground from deep red, ripe peppers. The dried peppers are a deep dark red and slightly glossy. Drying over smoke gives the powder a smoky, intense and penetrating flavour and smell. Its colouring power is high, and even stronger in the Ocal varieties than in Bola. Because the peppers are dried slowly and gently, according to the specification the flavour, aroma and colour last a very long time.

There are three flavours: sweet (mild, very sweet; from Bola and Jaranda), bittersweet or “Ocal” (intense, sweet or slightly hot; from Jaranda and Jariza) and hot (very hot; from Jeromín, Jariza and Jaranda). The powder is ground so finely that it passes through a sieve with a mesh size of 1.19 mm, and it contains at most 14 % moisture.

Every pack bears the logo of the designation of origin and a numbered control label. The packaging must be new and may not be reused.

Production

The varieties Jaranda, Jariza and Jeromín from the “Ocal” group and the variety Bola are used, all from the production area. Ripe, healthy and clean peppers in the colour typical of the variety are harvested.

Production has two steps. First the farmers dry the peppers in drying chambers on their farms, using the traditional “de la Vera” method with hot air and smoke from burning holm oak or pedunculate oak wood from the area. The dried peppers are then ground in mills in the area. Packing also takes place there.

Origin & history

The area covers municipalities in the districts of La Vera, Campo Arañuelo, Valle del Ambroz and Valle del Alagón in the north of the province of Cáceres. It lies at the foot of the Sistema Central mountains, whose ranges, such as the Sierra de Gredos, shield the valleys from cold northern air and bring mild winters. The soils formed from granite and are sandy to loamy-sandy, slightly acidic and free of salt. Rain falls mainly in autumn and spring; in summer irrigation is needed.

Because it rains a lot precisely at the time of the pepper harvest in autumn, drying in the sun as in Murcia was hardly possible. The farmers in La Vera therefore developed drying over a wood fire, mainly with wood from the oak forests of the area. The first evidence of pepper growing dates from the 16th century, when the monks of the Order of Saint Jerome at the monastery of Yuste grew the plant. At the end of the 17th century commercial production of the powder began in water-powered mills at the mouths of mountain gorges, and by the middle of the 18th century it was already well developed. Later, electricity made electric mills possible.