The legendary burning of Granja Viader in Barcelona has two years left to find a replacement.

BarcelonaThe recipe for the Granja Viader custard is from Mercè Casademunt Viader's great-grandmother. It's a family recipe, which they don't have written down, but it's how they've always made it, because it was explained to them. They start by flavoring the milk with cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. And when the milk is flavored, with that aroma that the milk should give off, they place it, cold, especially cold, in a bain-marie. That is, they put it inside a larger pot with water that will cover the sides of the pot containing the flavored milk. Then they add the remaining ingredients, which are the eggs and cornstarch, and let it thicken gradually. When it's cooked, with the texture that the custard should have, they place it in clay tartlets, burn it with an iron griddle, and serve it with sponge cakes. "Each little casserole dish, we sell it for 5.25 euros, and it's true that in March, around Sant Josep, we sell a lot, but we make it all year round, because people always ask for it," explains Mercè, who adds that above all what they notice about Sant Josep are the orders, because people order to take home like so many safas. Throughout, Mercè has called it a burn, "because that's what it's always been called," and that's how it's written on the menu. In other words, no "Catalan cream," Mercè continues, and we entertain ourselves with this topic for a while, because Mercè is absolutely right. In the normative dictionary of the Institute of Catalan Studies, it is simplycream. "If the cream, off the heat, is covered with a light layer of sugar and toasted with a hot iron, it is calledburnt creameitherburning of Saint Joseph"These are the traditional names in Catalan and the ones that should be used as genuine," Cristina Bofill Caralt, theHead of the Terminology Research Area of Termcat.

This is how Mercè would like to continue saying and doing things when she retires. She has two years left, and her children have already let her know they won't take over. "I've started to say that in two years I'll retire, because I would like Granja Viader to be taken over by someone who believes in it, who wants to do the same thing we've been doing since my great-grandfather, Marc Viader i Bas, came to work there around 1895, and milk came from it, because where we are now is a dairy," she explains. A few years later, her great-grandfather was already the owner of the dairy, and by 1910 he had already registered it in his name, Granja M. Viader.

Next to it, in the workshop, are the large pots of hot chocolate. "Every day we make four of them, each ten liters," meaning Granja Viader serves 40 liters of melted chocolate in cups every day, which on weekdays means up to 500 people ordering out of a total of 700 that La Mercè has counted coming in. When it's time to eat it, the melted chocolate is still served with a mountain of whipped cream (and then it becomes a Swiss pastry), but "churros are much more popular now." In fact, Mercè assures us that the current boom is churros with hot chocolate, especially among young people. We adults eat them with ensaimada or cream, to make their Swiss pastry, but churros are winning every time.

On one side of the farm, where you can enter through your own door, there's a counter of cured meats and cheeses, made in-house, as Mercè points out. There's cottage cheese, for example, and many other delicacies that require refrigeration, but outside the counter, Mercè also sells extra virgin olive oil, made in the town of Perelló. So those who come to eat can also take home what they need to prepare lunch or dinner at home. Real olive oil, included.

One hundred and fifty years to celebrate

We continue to look at the Farm. On the walls are the posters from the exhibition they held when the establishment turned 125. "When we reached 150, we wanted to change them, but it was the year of the pandemic, of Covid, and here we have left the ones from the last exhibition, untouched," Mercè points out. They have new posters to display, because even in Cardedeu, the Viaders' hometown, there is the Marc Viader Foundation, in the Viader Tower, where they've built a museum. It's a way of remembering that the origin of Cacaolat was right in this space. It was created by Mercè's grandfather, Joan Viader, who traveled to Budapest with his father, and there he tried a similar drink, which surprised them because they'd never had anything like it before. The story goes that upon his return home, he kept experimenting until he found a recipe he liked. While he was doing this, everyone at La Granja tried it. "And look how things have come around! Now, 50% of the brand is owned by a competitor, Colacao; the other 50% is owned by the Barcelona brewery Damm."

We resume the conversation that led us to Cardedeu, and talk about his great-grandfather. "He came to Barcelona to try his luck, because he was a farmer, and the countryside didn't offer work." He was a very enterprising man, and he supported his son in launching that milk and chocolate shake that had fascinated him since their trip to Budapest. There are many other events that led Granja Viader to become known far and wide, one important one being advertising. They worked hard from the moment they put Cacaolat on sale in 1933. Now, some posters are the ones that take your breath away when you remember the anniversary when you see them on the walls of the Granja. Incidentally, there are curious anecdotes, such as the administrative dispute that Cacaolat won against "The Cola-Cola & Company" when they were accused of copying the graphic design of the letter C from the logo. In 1975, a judge ruled that there was no similarity, and that consumers were not mistaken when reading both brands.

Mercè knows many more stories about the farm. She's the fourth generation, and she's clear-headed enough to tell them and fight to keep them alive. That's why she wants everything to continue in two years, when she's retired. We'll be able to eat hot chocolate and, especially, cream as usual on Calle Xuclà in Barcelona.