AGUARDENTE PÁSCOA
Esmeraldo Tomás Páscoa
SELÃO
282 912 493
37°22’41.59”N 8°38’56.31”W
Esmeraldo Tomás Páscoa has been making aguardente de medronho for thirty years, but has been in the business for a lot longer, at least as long as he is old, somewhere over sixty. His father traded in aguardente and smoked ham in Alentejo and in Algarve, and therefore he recalls the times when the medronho barrels were fitted on to the animals’pack saddles and they would travel through hamlets and villages all the way to Odeceixe, Odemira and Cercal to sell their goods. He also recalls his father having bought a truck but as they did not have the roads they have today, part of the journey was still done on foot with the load on their backs.
A lot has changed since then, especially the roads, that are now all paved. But as far as crafts are concerned, Esmeraldo Páscoa and his descendants followed the steps of their fathers and grandfathers. Besides making aguardente de medronho, they also produce sausages. And, in both one business and the other they insist on sticking to old recipes. If for their sausages they only use well-fed black pork, for the medronho they select the fruit grown on sunny hills to ensure each glass of their aguardente has the sought after rosary of beads around it.