The 'vermut' hour - uncovering Catalonia's timeless tradition

Filling the Sink

For centuries, Catalans have enjoyed “la hora del vermut,” or in English “the vermouth hour”, a time during the day when people slow down and sip a cool glass of vermouth while catching up on life.

But what exactly is vermouth, where does it come from, and is it difficult to make yourself?

Cillian Shields joins Lea Beliaeva Bander to chat about all things vermut, and together with the Catalan News team we visit the self-proclaimed Land of vermouth, Les Vermudes, located in the Sant Antoni neighborhood of Barcelona, where our vermouth professor Elena tells us all about this versatile drink, its origins, and how it got its name. And as if that weren’t enough, we also got to make our own.

This week we couldn’t decide on just one Catalan phrase, so we came up with two: Fer el vermut, which literally means to make a vermouth, and refers to the ritual of catching up with friends with or without a glass of vermouth. The second Catalan phrase is “Reus, Londres i París”, or “Reus, London and Paris”. To hear the story behind the second saying, check out this week’s episode.

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