Rosquillas de Alhama

The Alhama rosquilla crunches before it tastes of anything: wheat flour, sourdough, extra virgin olive oil, water and salt, a dry ring eaten on its own, with whatever is at hand or dipped in whatever is going. It is savoury by birth, and it is the sweet versions — aniseed, chocolate, also wholemeal or with sunflower seeds — that bring it into this chapter.

There is more than bread behind it. The rosquilla was already made before the Civil War and in the post-war years it kept many of the village's families afloat, with the name of Natividad Burgos tied to its spread. Today five Alhama bakeries make it — Productos Dory, Panadería Carmela, Panadería Mónica, Panadería El Túnel, Productos Dicel — and since 2017 the village has devoted its Feria de la Rosquilla to it every May. A protected geographical indication has been applied for, not yet granted as of May 2025.

To take some home, El Túnel, on Calle Doctor García Arance, has them plain, aniseed, chocolate or flattened, alongside breadsticks and crackers with extra virgin olive oil; in Rioja, Productos Pichote, part of Sabores Almería, makes them with dark and white chocolate, with oil and wholemeal. The bag keeps for days: a bread that has learned to turn sweet and to travel.