Since we had already mentioned the connection between the Canary Islands and Africa in some other articles, this week we would like to show you the relationship that this region keeps with America, specially with South America, by means of one of the sweetest product in the islands: honey, a topic that we already delighted some weeks ago (Oh honey!).
One of the most famous kinds of honey in the Canary Islands is guarapo. According to the Real Academia Española, guarapo is a Quechua word meaning cane juice from what sugar is produced after evaporation. Actually, guarapo is the name given in some parts of Colombia to a fermented drink made from cane honey. The truth is that ‘cane honey’ (miel de caña) is actually a synonym of guarapo, as in the Canary Islands, specifically in La Gomera island, and according to the Academia Canaria de la Lengua, guarapo is a cane juice to produce honey cane; that is, guarapo is the sap of palms.
In order to obtain and elaborate guarapo, the same process used some years gone by is followed, a tradition that is mentioned in old documents such as Historia, written in the 18th century by the Canarian chronicler Viera y Clavijo. As you can see in this video, the producers (guaraperos) climb the Canary Islands palm tree (Phoenix canariensis) to cut down some branches and extract the sap from the heart. Then, the sap is cooked and filtered, so the result is a very liquid product: guarapo, highly valued in confectionery and even as a popular medicine against colds.
As we said before, guarapo is also called miel de caña, although the European Union considers more appropriate to refer to it as a syrup because it is not made by bees. In any case, this is not the only sweet product prepared in the Canary Islands, as there are several kinds of honey, entered as a product in the register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications by the European Commission. Among them, the most famous is probably miel de tajinaste (tajinaste honey) because it is obtained from the flower of this endemic plant.
Tajinaste, specifically red tajinaste (Echium wildpretii), is a very curious bush endemic to the Canary Islands whose name is a pre-Hispanic word that may derive from the Berber ‘tisgnit’ (needle) because of the shape the flowers are set out, although some linguists (Sabir, 2008) think that it derives from any of the different plants – including palm trees – we find in the South of Morocco, known as ‘taynast’. Tajinaste honey, obtained thanks to the work of the Canarian black bee, is typical of the island of Tenerife and it is characterised by a very sweet but soft taste, a white-beige colour and a very creamy texture.
Finally, all Canarian foodstuff we mentioned, and whose origins we may connect to different continents, merely highlight how the location of any place in the world determines it and finally blesses it by means of its food, of its “comfort food”, with a unique warmth called home.
Written by Ana Bennasar – Certified Terminologist (ECQA)
Former terminology trainee at TermCoord
Sources:
- Academia Canaria de la Lengua. 2016. Buscador (diccionario) [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.academiacanarialengua.org/diccionario/buscar/?q=guarapo.
- Alimentos de La Gomera. 2016. Miel de Palma, conoce la reina de la cocina de La Gomera. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.alimentosdelagomera.com/miel-de-palma/.
- Diccionario de la lengua española – Edición del Tricentenario. [ONLINE] Available at: http://dle.rae.es/?id=JhOz94o
- Guarapo – EnciclopediaGuanche. 2016. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.guanches.org/enciclopedia/index.php?title=Guarapo
- Miel de Palma – CanariWiki. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www3.gobiernodecanarias.org/medusa/wiki/index.php?title=Miel_de_Palma
- Sabir, A.: Las Canarias prehispánicas y el norte de África. El ejemplo de Marruecos. Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe: Rabat, 2008; pp. 239-240
- Tajinaste | Casa de la miel. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.casadelamiel.org/es/mieles-de-tenerife/tajinaste.
- Tajinaste – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre. 2016. [ONLINE] Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajinaste
- Terminology Coordination Unit. 2016. Comfort food, memories from our cultures – Terminology Coordination Unit [DGTRAD] – European Parliament. [ONLINE] Available at: http://termcoord.eu/2016/07/19480/.
- YouTube. Alimentos de La Gomera: La miel de palma – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ws-BdMoJk.