Espuña

Espuña is a family-owned Catalan charcuterie company based in Olot, in the province of Girona. It began with fuets and longanizas and now makes cured sausages, serrano ham and Iberian shoulder, along with cooked products which are not cured.

Esteban Espuña started the business in 1947 at a farmhouse in La Vall de Bianya. The family moved to Olot in 1949, opened its first own factory there in 1960 and added cured ham and chorizo in 1968 by taking over Gou Terrades. Kicón, the first fixed-weight sausages for self-service, came in 1978; a plant at Utrillas, Teruel, followed in 2005, Cañitas in 2011, and a third generation took over in 2019.

In scope are Fuet d'Olot, chorizo, salchichón, longaniza de payés, sobrasada in 240 g packs, cured panceta, Jamón serrano aged 9 months (bodega) or 12 months (reserva), duroc gran reserva at 24 to 26 months, and shoulder from 50% Iberian pigs. Cañitas is the producer's own name for one line. Espuña does not appear on the member list of the Jamón serrano TSG consortium, and its site makes no PDO or PGI claim, sobrasada included.

Espuña is best read as a sausage house that grew into ham, not a ham dryer that added sausages: its fuet is two decades older than its ham. It has nothing to do with Embutidos y Jamones España e Hijos of Toledo.

Pack forms run from tray-sliced meat to counter pieces, 150 to 250 g sticks and chorizo strings (sarta). Look for the Espuña logo and the tagline «La vida es pan con jamón» in supermarket delis and Spanish food shops.