the orotava made this Wednesday, January 4, 2023 a roscón de Reyes 570 meters longformed by 700 pieces that allowed to distribute about 5,600 servings in an afternoon that will remain for the memory. Those 570 meters of sweet pastry cream filling have allowed exceed the roscón by 20 meters that was made in Villa de Moya on December 17, in Gran Canaria. The one from La Orotava is now officially the biggest roscón de Reyes de Canarias and one of the largest in Spain and Europe.
The initiative to make this enormous sweet, promoted 11 years ago by the Local Economic Development area of the City Hall of the orotava, also has a charitable purpose, since each portion serves to collect donations for the benefit of the Spanish Red Cross to help the most needy families in the area. The town hall invest about 14,000 euros in the purchase of the ingredients and in the organization of the act.
The production work is carried out by Jovita Bakery and of the Manobuena pastry shopwho have dedicated many hours and have had to momentarily stop their production to be able to prepare a sweet of 1,700 kilos. Some of the ingredients of it were 1,200 kilos of pastry cream300 kilos of flour, 20 kilos of fresh yeast, 15 liters of white and 5 liters of egg yolk, 15 liters of orange juice, more than 150 kilos of candied fruit, 50 kilos of oranges, as well as margarine, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, water, milk and lemon, among others.
From 100 meters from the first Roscón de Reyes made in 2012, La Orotava had not stopped improving, despite the difficulties of recent years. It was precisely in the year 2020, just before the Covid turned the world upside down, the local record of 310 meters was broken. Pulverized by far this Wednesday.
The festive day closed this Wednesday in La Orotava with the distribution of some 5,600 portions of a roscón weighing about 1,700 kilos, divided into about 700 pieces
The luckiest were able to find some of the surprises and gifts, donated by shops in the orotava, inside this sweet solidarity. In the surroundings of this commercial area of Emilio Luque avenue there was a very festive atmosphere thanks to the musical performances of Miss Music Band, El Coyote Cojo and Dj Richardand the appearance of some cartoon characters.
The roscón de reyes distribution began ahead of schedule, around 4:45 p.m., to prevent the queue of people who had gathered in the area from continuing to grow. Despite the fact that thousands of people attended, the maximum wait to access a portion of roscón and a glass of hot chocolate was between 20 and 30 minutes. Among the public, many residents of the orotavabut also tourists and people from Tenerife who come from places as far away as Arona, Santa Cruz or Buenavista del Norte.
People like Tere Sosa, from Saint Ursula, who did not hesitate to affirm that «this roscón de Reyes is the best there is. No gifts, no toys, nothing. This is the best of parties ». Carlos, from the Orotava neighborhood of The Forgiveness, enjoyed this act for the first time: «It is a mortal sin, but before I had not been able to come for work reasons, but I had to free and I said: let’s all go there. It is a beautiful initiative that attracts many people from the town and beyond the seas. Along with this villero, Nieves, Charo and Marga were also attending for the first time and they spared no praise for the roscón and its authors.
More than 500 liters of hot chocolate were distributed in small glasses to accompany the portions of the roscón
For everything to go well Red Cross mobilized a team of more than 20 volunteers who were joined by 13 collaborators from the Manobuena pastry shop, in addition to municipal and Civil Protection personnel. The regional president of the Red Cross in the Valley of La Orotava, Heliodoro Gonzalez, stressed that this tradition is “very important” for the entity and for the families that are having the worst time: “There is still a lot of demand from the population, although the situation has improved after the pandemic, there are still people in great need.” With this roscón, funds will arrive that will help many families with limited resources and, especially, the children population.
Among the attendees, the insular vice-president, Enrique Arriaga, who appreciated «the large number of people who gather in this fantastic act and the solidarity of all those who participate. We have congratulated the organization because it is something very nice, and more so on these dates. Next to her, the counselor concepcion rivero and the insular director of Highways, Thomas Felix Garciawho celebrated this opportunity to “enjoy the roscón and La Orotava”.
The distribution of the portions is only the final part of a hard job at Jovita Bakery, where production has practically stopped for two days to focus on the roscón. Also in the Manobuena pastry shopwho worked during the previous night to “produce more than 1,200 kilos of pastry cream and throughout the day to assemble the 700 roscón pieces”, as indicated Carmen Sosa. Collaborating, volunteering as mary rodriguezeager to cut and distribute generous portions, “with the idea of being able to reach almost 6,000 people.”
The mayor of Commerce, Philip David Benitez, stated that “this act has become a benchmark for Christmas in Tenerife, we know that many people come from other towns because it is something that is only done here. We were the pioneers, in Moya they imitated us, and we have made the effort this year not to be left behind and to continue being the first”. The roscón is the attraction that helped the streets of downtown the orotava They will be filled with people “who can also look for those last details in our business. It is a genuine initiative and a very powerful campaign, which also gives us external promotion.”
Mayor, Francisco Linares, did not hide his “full satisfaction” for the success of an initiative that “consolidates its 11th edition, breaks the record for size and portions distributed, and attracts people from all over the island, which is an economic boost for local commerce on a key day of the Kings campaign». Linares believes that now we have to go step by step. He recalled that “we started with 100 meters 11 years ago, now we have reached almost 600, who knows if in a few years we will already be talking about a thousand meters, a whole kilometer of roscón.” In case there was any doubt, the mayor said that the continuity of this act is “institutionally guaranteed forever”.
on the horizon remains the guinness recordwhich currently corresponds to the Mexican town of Tizimin. On January 6, 2020, this municipality of Yucatán broke the record title for the largest roscón de Reyes in the world, defined by Guinness World Records as “the longest line of breads in the world”: 7,370 portions that totaled a length of 3,009.65 meters.
