Uco Bakery

The kings of sourdough

The Uco Bakery's workshop shows us with absolute transparency on how to work with your hands without industrial additives.

Author: Joan Ramis Boscana

One of our hobbies is linked to the first hour of the day, and that is none other than strolling around Palma when the morning breaks through the sky. We love to see how the sunlight caresses the facades of the center, how the tops of the palm trees sway in a shy breeze. We observe these phenomena while the managers of some locals - the early risers - pull up their gates and open the doors of their businesses. But if we talk about a full morning custom that acquires a special flavor before breakfast, that moment before the first coffee, it is the ritual of going out to buy bread. A project that knows how to honor this food is Uco Bakery, a temple of sourdough that in Mallorca has earned its own name by right: nearly nobody does things as well as they do.  

When we cross their doors on Berenguer de San Juan street - they have another establishment near the Mercat de l'Olivar - we are welcomed by a fragrance that smells of bread, seeds, nuts and cheese. An olfactory show that intoxicates our senses to the point of almost leaving them dazed. We never get used to such a festival of smells, just as we never get used to a space designed with the intention of making us see the following: this is not a typical bakery, this is a modern concept bakery where Cate Stanton, Nuria Amengual and Josh Nathanson have worked on the interior design. That is: the co-founder of Uco, the interior designer and the creator of its brand image. We are in a bakery with high ceilings, exposed stone walls and shelves. Behind a rustic wooden counter well elongated where the product is displayed in all its splendor, the Uco Bakery workshop presents us with absolute transparency on how to work with hands without industrial additives. Pure craftsmanship.

Behind the scenes we can see Gus Alem, the other co-founder of the project and the person who manages the wonderful creations that are baked in this space. Gus is accompanied by Malu, who with a pleasant smile greets us as only a baker knows how to do: with the friendly manners of one who knows he is one of the first to greet us in the morning. Contemplating the products of Uco Bakery is like undergoing a kind of hypnosis exercised by the sourdough, the great protagonist of this bakery. The thirty hours of fermentation required for their breads are noticeable in the final result, which in the showcase looks more than attractive. Their variety says it all about the creativity of those behind the project: bread with garlic, parmesan and ghee; one with turmeric, raisins and sesame; another with figs and almonds toasted in Mallorca. The typology does not stop growing and reaches almost twenty, a precious fermented madness in honor of a basic and ancestral food, elaborated with products harvested on the island. All of proximity, all autochthonous.   

We place our order and choose a bread for which we feel a predilection: green olives, wild rosemary and extra virgin olive oil from Son Moragues. While the order is still being wrapped, we can't resist trying something sweet to taste it on the spot, at one of the bakery's tables near the entrance. We get a piece of brownie and enjoy it with a cup of coffee, as they also serve it. A bite of that piece of cake is like a trip to the bowels of a Central American jungle, where cocoa is harvested like nowhere else. Its sponginess makes us fall on an elastic and creamy bed that smells of coconut sugar, which has a salty touch thanks to the fleur de sel. Gluten and lactose free, a chocolatey delight.  

While we lick our fingers we look at the back of the place, which on a cobblestone floor has two trees illuminated by the morning light, filtered through the roof. We see an olive tree, a species from which one of the ingredients that make up the bread we have just bought is extracted, and which will remain in perfect condition for a few days. We know that the kitchen of our house - it has happened other times - will be impregnated for hours with the aroma of nature that Uco Bakery exudes. A place that is worth visiting even though they can bring us home delivery orders, a place where it is difficult to leave without buying a chocolate from Maüa, an infusion from Dos Alquemistas or honey from Mel Vici. We say goodbye to Gus and Malu, we leave Uco Bakery and as the sun rises every day, we know we will be back.