La Despensa is a new food hamper service in Barcelona. Set up by Alberto of Espai Egg and Bear on Bike and Carmen and Andrea from SlowMov. Both run projects I love. They are about sustainable, organic, local food products. These days, I can’t open a menu without reading those words. However, La Despensa doesn’t use them for the purpose of virtue signaling, they really incorporate those things. It’s nose to tail slow, sustainable, and local.
I know because at some point I am badgering Alberto about including Sitges in his delivery radius. He hesitates, he rubs his chin. “I can get things to Sitges or anywhere but if we use the traditional delivery services, something like SEUR they produce a lot of pollution and compromise what we are trying to do.”
What La Despensa is doing is making the entire thing and process sustainable. Not just the bits you put in your mouth. The packaging is made locally, in Vilafranca del Penedes, from 100% recycled paper. The ink is water based on both the bag and the box to reduce the use of chemicals. The bag is made from organic cotton and sturdy enough to withstand many future uses. If the order is in Barcelona, it will be peddled over to you with 0 emissions. Add that up to all the flights you haven’t taken this year and 2020 might be your greenest year – depending of course on how hard you hit Amazon during lockdown.
And that’s before we get to the contents of the box. There are three to start with. A Vegan Box (28.50) with vegan cheese, kombucha and bread. A Brunch Box (37) which includes Rooftop smokehouse pickles and smoked protein, bread from Origo bakery, marmalade from La Vestale, cheese from Pinullet and beer from Cyclic.
As it’s Christmas – they’ve put together a Christmas hamper too (48.50-51.50). This one comes with wine and a bag of coffee from Slow Mov.
I am deliriously excited about Origo bread in Sitges. Because ever since these Covid municipality restrictions I have found myself in dire straights with specialty ingredients I count on for quality of life. The simple stuff that you have to get right, namely bread, coffee, cheese, butter. Speaking of butter, there is a slim rectangle of smoked butter from Rooftop smokehouse that will have you blinking at the packaging with stunned disbelief. How can butter taste so much like meat?
La Despensa
www.ladespensabarcelona.com
How good is Orgio Bread??! & Great photo in front of the iconic Centre de Cultura(: I’ve just started a gourmet meal delivery service and have my first client in El Bourne!