Cider House Experience (January–April)

The Cider House Experience is a seasonal immersion available only between January and April, when the sagardotegiak (cider houses) of Astigarraga — a small town ten kilometres south of San Sebastián in Gipuzkoa — open for the annual txotx season. The txotx (pronounced approximately 'choach') is the ritual that defines the cider house visit: when the cellar master opens a tap on one of the enormous wooden barrels — each holding between 5,000 and 10,000 litres of new cider — guests gather beneath the arc that streams from the barrel and catch it in their glasses. The arc aerates the cider, giving it a lively freshness that it lacks poured conventionally from a tap or bottle. The communal tables inside the stone-walled cider houses fill with locals and visitors eating at long shared benches in a festive, unhurried atmosphere. The traditional txotx menu is fixed and substantial: it begins with a salt cod omelette (tortilla de bacalao), proceeds to a large txuleton steak grilled over charcoal, and concludes with idiazabal sheep's milk cheese served with quince paste and walnuts. Cider is unlimited throughout the meal; each time the cellar master calls 'txotx!' across the room a new barrel is opened and guests move to catch the fresh pour. The guided experience includes transport from San Sebastián and an educational component covering the history and production of Basque cider — including the Gipuzkoan apple varieties, the natural fermentation process in chestnut and oak barrels, and the difference between the dry Basque sagardoa and sweeter ciders produced elsewhere in Europe — along with a visit to the barrel cellar before the meal. Basque cider produced in Astigarraga is unfiltered, dry, tannic, and low in alcohol (typically 5–7% ABV) — a style distinct from commercial sweet ciders and suited to the robust flavours of the traditional menu. The experience lasts three to four hours.