Iberico Acorn-Fed Ham Tasting

Their delicious flavor, the unique diet of the animals, as well as its high quality, have made Spain’s acorn-fed Ibérico hams one of the country’s most luxurious products. As with champagne or wine, this type of ham benefits from having their own denomenation of origin, as well as a legally-regulated production, you can thoroughly enjoy this delicacy at one of the Iberico Ham Tastings which Madrid Experience can organize for you.

Private Group Ham Tasting

A gourmet ham experience is perfect for you if you want to savor the different kinds and qualities available in Spain.

This gastronomic tasting in Madrid is personally designed for groups that are looking for a private and exclusive experience. Guided by a Master Carver highly recognized in their field, the Ham tasting will showcase different qualities of ham and their regions of origin for tasting, while educating the participants on how to identify the varieties from one another.

Madrid Experience will organize an acorn-fed Iberico Ham Tasting using Spain’s best hams. Discover and enjoy them with us.

How are our Ham Tastings?

The best hams of Spain will be available for your tasting, together with an expert who will talk about the difference between Iberico Acorn-Fed Ham and others that belong to distinct qualities and denominations of origin. This will be a complete immersion to the world of ham, which is the most important part of the Spanish gastronomy. We will exclusively organize a private ham tasting event according to your liking.

The Iberico Ham tasting lasts approximately 90 minutes which includes a choice of Sherry wine or red wine, and a perfect pairing of bread and cheese.

During an Iberian Acorn-fed ham tasting you will be able to observe and, with the use of your senses, to describe what you are experiencing with the help of your perception. The objective of the ham tasting is to achieve a reasoned evaluation of the product at hand.

You will be able to try the Iberian Acorn-fed ham, which will be exposed to the senses to determine through this investigation what are its different qualities and/ or its defects.

Madrid Experience normally organises VIP Iberian Acorn-fed ham tastings where you will be able to taste three of the best Iberian hams currently made in Spain, and we will include ‘Cebo’ ham (made from Iberian pigs fed on compound feeds), or even Serrano ham, so as to highlight the characteristics of the Iberian Acorn-fed ham.

Madrid Experience can organise these ham tastings at your company headquarters, or at a special venue, such as a private palace’s hall, or a charming restaurant.

Method in a ham tasting event

A ham tasting can be defined as a group of methods and techniques which allow for the perception, identification and –through the use of our senses– appreciation of a certain amount of the organoleptic characteristics of food, as well as objects.

The Ham tastings and the senses

Out of the five senses, three in particular allow a taster to travel and acquire a conclusion: sight, smell and taste.

During the ham tasting, these three senses should be alert and ready to specifically and precisely perceive the largest amount of sensations which we will discover during the session.

a) Visual Phase

Colour: Are the slices a brilliant red, somewhere between purple and pale pink?

Veins: The cut, form and distribution of fat are easily seen.

Are there any visible Tyrosine crystals?

b) Olfactory Phase

Smell: The piece should have a pleasant, balanced and intense arom

c) Tactile Phase

Touch: The slices are soft and slide easily, the ham is soft to the touch

d) Tasting Phase

Juiciness: It depends on the meat’s own juices as much as it does on its fat content, since this is what will stimulate the flow of saliva.

Taste: We are able to identify three tastes: savoury, sweet and sour.

How to distingush a great Iberian ham?

Acorn-fed Iberico ham stands out because of its texture, aroma and taste. This taste depends on several key factors: the animal’s breed –Iberian ‘pata negra’ (black hoof) pigs– which are exclusively raised and bred in Spain, their diet, which consists almost exclusively of acorns, and the amount of exercise they have had during their lives.

We invite you to immerse yourself in the world of Iberico Acorn-Fed Ham by enjoying the ham tasting and gastronomic trips to the curing factories in Salamanca and pastures where they are grown, which are located in Andalusia.

We will be delighted to organize for you a Ham Tasting for your group and design a real unforgetable experience for them. Please contact us HERE or at:

info@madrid-experience.com  –  0034 915 417 099 – 0034 644 355 651