We are huge fans of the supermarket Mercadona. Not only do they have one of the best selections of packaged and fresh food in Spain, they also sell their own brand of high-quality packaged food products – Hacendado.
Hacendado food products are an average of 10-30% cheaper than other brands, the quality is superb and the taste absolutely delicious. We’ve probably eaten, or buy consistently, at least 50% of the products Mercadona puts out under the Hacendado label, and we’ve yet to be disappointed with anything.
We particularly recommend the Hacendado brand soy milk. We drink around a liter a day and as it is usually cheaper than any other brand of soy milk, and goes on sale fairly often, it’s quite a savings over a month.
It also comes in a plastic bottle, which we prefer to the other brands with the cardboard box-style containers, as the soy milk seems to stay fresher longer. Plus, if you like chocolate soy milk, the Hacendado brand is awesome.
Also look for Hacendado chocolate, the plain dark chocolate (chocolate negro) is impossible to put down and the milk chocolate with nuts is delicious too.
The Hacendado brand of turrón, that delicious nougat confection, is also utterly delicious — and comes in a variety of flavors and sizes. They also sell special bars and boxes of it for Christmas and other holidays.
Plus, if you don’t mind doing a bit of preparation, the Hacendado flan (creme caramel) is cheap and can be whipped up in just a few minutes. We usually just put it all in one big bowl. It sets in less than an hour, and you can keep going back for seconds. (Of course, it’s lucky if it makes it to the end of the day in our house!)
Look too for Hacendado sliced ham (jamon), Hacendado potato chips and nuts, Hacendado Allioli, Extra Virgin Oil, and just about anything in the frozen food section.
We normally pick up every food we can in the Hacendado brand, except for some specialty items like certain pizzas and cheeses that we like, and then buy the remainder of our groceries from other brands. Just by picking up Hacendado brands like that, we save well over 100 euros a month on our usual grocery shop.
Did we say we love Mercadona?
Related reading: Why we buy all our groceries at Mercadona — one of the best supermarket chains in Spain