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Date Published: 11/10/2023

UK ambassador gifts homemade Seville orange marmalade to mayor of Seville

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Hugh Elliott himself made the preserve from oranges plucked from the fragrant gardens of Seville’s Alcázar royal palace

UK ambassador gifts homemade Seville orange marmalade to mayor of Seville

UK Ambassador to Spain Hugh Elliott attended the first Seville Hay Forum this week, a huge event bringing together national and internal names with a view to exploring how to transform cities through culture. To mark the grand occasion, Mr Elliott decided to present the mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz, with several jars of marmalade, made by his own fair hands, from the orange groves of… Seville.

Well, they do say it’s the thought that counts.

While it may seem a bit peculiar to gift the mayor a preserve he could easily pick up in any store in his home city, the ambassador was actually thoughtfully and rather sweetly reviving a decades old tradition using fruit from a 500-year-old tree in the gardens of the Alcázar royal palace.

And it’s fair to say the mayor was touched.

“I don’t usually like marmalade but I have to say that this one has ‘un toque especial’ [a special touch]. It is sweeter than other marmalades. From tomorrow, it will become part of my family breakfast table,” Mr Sanz enthused.

With this homemade present, Mr Elliott was reversing a custom which dates back to 1906, when Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg began shipping the bitter oranges back to the British royal family from Spain after she married King Alfonso XIII.

Believe it or not, the ambassador really did make the marmalade himself, from an old recipe handed down from his grandmother.

“At home it was always my job to make the marmalade,” he joked.

Having received his own batch of the prized oranges, he was keen to revive the old tradition in a bid to further sweeten relations with Spain.

“Diplomacy is not just about negotiations and international treaties. For me, diplomacy is about sewing links and celebrating the things that unite us,” he said.

“This is a wonderful tradition,” Mr Elliott added, “resurrected from many years ago but with a modern twist, which sends Spanish oranges from Seville’s Royal Palace to the most British of breakfast tables.”

In other news: Remains of last crocodile in Europe discovered in Granada

Image: Hay Festival ESP

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