The porrons are the traditional way in which wine and other drinks were (and are) served in Catalonia. The idea is that you can share the same container among many people without contamination because the porró doesn't touch your mouth.
In Picasso's "The Harem" (at the Cleveland Museum of Art) one character is holding a porró. Some critics have thought that it is a phallic symbol, while it is just an everyday drink ware.
Also, in Catalan it is "porró" in singular and "porrons" in plural; in Spanish it is "porrón" in singular and "porrones" in plural. "Porróns" doesn't make sense in either language.
I drank from a porron at several village fairs in Spain in the 80s.
My wife’s from Barcelona, her family from Andalucía... I’ve drunk sweet wine from porrones in Girona, cider from porrones in the north, red wine and my favorite, beer from porrones, down in the south... long live the porrón!
Can Txakoli be far behind?
I am Spanish and I think that the porron is currently a decorative item, it is not easy to find bars where they serve drinks in Porron.
The porron master.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U-bfAcv5Xd4
For an article about Porrón's in U.S. (NYC) it's odd not to mention El Porrón. A restaurant literally named after the thing. I know little Spain is new and "hip" but El Porrón has been around rocking Porróns in the Upper East side for a decade now.
The "porró" (in Catalan, please) appears in paintings by Picasso, Miró and other masters. Check Picasso's "The Harem" (1906) at the Cleveland Museum of Art https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.45
and Miró's "Portrait of Vicenç Nubiola" at the Museum Folkwang
http://collection-online.museum-folkwang.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=3403&viewType=detailView
Oh, boy! As a Spaniard, I find the whole thing just hilarious.
This is what peasants used to drink from in the old days, including my grandparents. My dad is a master at it.
And yes, I do have a porrón at home.
Good... altho the porrons in these photos are a variation on the straight forward design that was used for porrons in 1963 -- I am glad they are back. (Very efficient. In the days when alcohol and ciggies were the abused drugs of choice, the porron allowed people to drink and no one had to wash glasses. A garage door opened to reveal an open space with a table and cheap wine... no food that I remember. This 18 year old looked on in consternation and sadness. Ah, the smell.. no more. Also nice are the clay Spanish water jars -- similar in style to those in Velasquez's painting, the water carrier of Seville, supposedly unglazed so that evaporation/transpiration would keep the water cool.
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The name is ‚botijo‘.
We tried one of these while on vacation in Spain a couple of years ago. I bought one when I got back and it's been the hit of many a dinner party. Especially fun is to fill it with fruit juice and/or soda (no alcohol) so kids can participate. Get a big towel to pass along with the Porron and watch the fun begin!
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Professionals refer to the type of person who drinks from a porron as a morron.
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Questionable report but well done.
I have been living in Spain for 17 years. I have not seen wine served in or drunk from a porrón. Not once.
One of my colleagues tells me she recalls from her youth people drinking from a porrón, but hasn't seen it done in more than 20 years.
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@Peter Greiff You and your colleagues should get out of Madrid more often. Every single household in my extended family has at least one and using it it's still pretty common in "fiestas de pueblo" and "romerías".
Looks like a cute novelty pulled out by university students after a few drinks. I could imagine my 20-year-old self getting one of these to pull out when drunk with friends at a party, but I couldn't imagine it having any more use now than all those shot glasses I've accumulated and the quaitch I was gifted.
Maybe if I'm ever in a Spanish-themed restaurant in the US, I'll try one for a laugh. I suppose it would make for a fun memory (and a weird Instagram pic). "Hey, remember the time I poured wine all over my face while everyone laughed with (at) me? Good times."
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At El Bodegon in DC, the waiters were known to trickle the wine down from the patrons' foreheads and into their mouths, said my late father and a frequenter in the 1970s. There was also the custom of other patrons counting off with claps how long one could drink without stopping. I saw him take quite a slug that way.
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@Chrisinauburn
"Those were the days my friend...." Start to swallow before you start to pour... and yes sipping is not the process!! OTOH it's quite communal.
@ Ellen B Rhode Island & @ Suzanne F Upper Upper Manhattan
Washing the crockery, glassware and cutlery is the most unpleasant part of the meal. When alone, I avoid it by eating of a plastic tray with as few items of flatware as possible.
They‘be been easy to find in thrift shops for years. I think of them as a sort of Spanish beer pong, a drinking game. Best used outside, warm weather cookout fun. And yeah, no red wine.
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Nice article. Drink more wine
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@Jose It appears to be more like, chug more wine.
...why?
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The new wine vessels look like a perversion of good wine drinking customs.
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Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Hula hoops. Pet rocks. Smurfs. Porrons. Hottest thing since sliced bread one week, dead in the water (and backed up in warehouses) the next.
Ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
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Wonderful, an "upscale", Instagram friendly version of the beer helmet.
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Given the design, I expect these are difficult to wash and prone to breakage. So do beverage directors incorporate the extra costs into menu prices? That should be a consideration of customers.
I have a couple from Goodwill. They are easy to wash if you use clear liquids without sediments or solids. Milk or orange juice would be a mess. Wine is easy.
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@Ellen B You have no more than two to wash at a time, and I'm guessing you wash them by hand. Now multiply that by 10 to 20 or more each night, and consider the extra labor needed in a restaurant to do that by hand. Washing them in an industrial machine is likely to break them, or etch them, which makes them unusable by a place that serves good wine. A quick Google search showed retail prices of $25 to $40; even at wholesale prices of half that, it's a considerable investment and replacement expense. That's why I'm wondering if wine prices are jacked up in places that use them.
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@Suzanne F Not at all there are special brushes this type of conteiners, other than that you can always put a bit of fine sand mixed in with soapy hot water to removed harder stains.
Porrón is a great invention also to pour olive oil in your cooking and to season your salads