The first official visit to the Canaries by the new British Ambassador to Spain brought the customary showcasing of the longstanding ties uniting the islands and the United Kingdom but also some more unusual focuses.
Among the institutional engagements undertaken during the visit at the end of last week, Sir Alex Ellis, who took up the post in Madrid in the autumn of 2024, met Canarian president Fernando Clavijo to discuss issues of mutual interest. He also called in on the authorities in Tenerife and Gran Canaria as part of the visit, which received extensive coverage in the local media, including several interviews.
During the conversations, the Ambassador – who was accompanied on the official trip by the head of consular services, Lucy Gorman – showed that he was well versed in the current affairs of the Canaries, even making a comment to Clavijo about the unusual levels of rain that have affected the Canaries of late. In an interview with local daily El Día, he added a touch of humour by including former Manchester City idol David Silva, who hails from Gran Canaria, among the United Kingdom’s “imports from the Canaries”.
Beyond the inevitably formal content of the visit and repeated mentions of the impact of British tourism for the Canarian economy (a tourism which has not been dented by Brexit), Sir Alex made the news for his glowing recommendation for one of the most popular forms of coffee drunk in the islands: the barraquito ordered by the thousands in bars and cafés across the Canaries every day and which may now enjoy a take-off among British tourists thanks to the plug received.
The Ambassador, a history teacher in Oxford before joining the diplomatic service, posted a video of himself on social media with the coffee, singing its praises as “the perfect way to start the day” and describing in detail what it consists of: coffee, ordinary milk, condensed milk, and a sprinkling of cinnamon, all topped by a coffee bean small wedge of lemon, and served in a small glass rather than a standard coffee cup.
The barraquito promotion was accompanied later by similarly fulsome praise for another Canarian food icon, the region’s famous papas arrugadas: little potatoes boiled in their skins in very salty water and served with a large dollop of oily green coriander sauce (mojo) to dip them in.
Taking advantage of a stop-off at one of Santa Cruz’s hidden restaurant gems, the very unassuming Bodegón El Puntero, Sir Alex took the opportunity to recall that the United Kingdom is a major exporter of potatoes to the Canaries and was then happy to be filmed dipping a few papas arrugadas into the coriander sauce and tasting them. The plug for things local was further enhanced by the presence of Tenerife’s popular alcohol-free Dorada beer on the counter beside the potatoes.
