Champagne cider started being produced in Asturias in the XIX century to be exported in overseas trade.
LA SIDRA.- Sparkling or champagne cider is not new in Asturias. And, though some of the best known brands are still active, like El Gaitero or Mayador, some others are in our memories in the form of beautiful old advertising, both in posters or labels and ceramic tiles.
Thus we find cider Vereterra y Cangas, from Gijon, town which dedicated a street to its founder Zarracina in 2001 and whose factory was a Royal House supplier.
El Horreo, the famous champagne cider from Colunga, sponsored the Piper from Libardon in his international early stage at the Expo in Paris 1900 and foreign trendy “starlettes” like Lorraine Dreux.
Some brands bear the name of the manufacturer’s birth town, like La Polesa, La Camuñesa, La Praviana or La Carbayona, which curiously was produced in Gijon.
A cider that associated its name to an ancient Asturian tradition was El Guirrio from La Felguera, whose name reminded of the most typical character in Carnival in the councils of San Martin del Rey Aurelio and Langreo (also called “sidro” en Siero and Bimenes).
The Asturian monarchy was also present in the names of champagne ciders. So we see in brands like Pelayo, Don Damian, Princesa de Asturias, whose owners were those of the brewery El Aguila Negra in Colloto, or Reina Victoria, from Champanera de Villaviciosa and supplier of the Royal House for years.
Other companies in the sector were Industrias Cima, in Colloto, La Reina de Asturias in Grado, La Asturiana in Caravia or the well-known El Oso in Aviles.
And in Gijon there were lots of champagne cider factories, such as La Aldeana, El Cielo de Asturias, El Asturiano, La Belleza, La Providencia or El Musel.
Source: La Piedriquina magazine
