The Aramendía butchery of Estelle This Sunday she won the XVIII edition of the competition for the best chistorra of Navarra 2024, which took place in Alfredo Floristán Square in Pamplona.
This business in the town of Ega succeed the Iriguíbel de Huarte butchery, winner in 2023, and of the Irigoyen butchery in Lerín which triumphed in 2022.
Felix Aramendia Gaston It is a 60-year-old butcher from Estelle, who receives this award for the second time, since he was also first in the 2017 edition, and second in the 2016 edition.
Once he received the prize, Félix received the txapela and the apron from the hands of the competition organizers and answered questions from journalists: “The truth is that I am very happy. I can’t believe I won because I hadn’t applied in a while. and the truth is that I am very happy.”
“Since I won in 2017, I have only played twice with the current one and the 2019 one. I didn’t make it to the final four and to come back to the competition and win it is something I didn’t even imagine.” said Felix.
“This is the second time I have won first prize. The secret is to do things with a lot of love, to do them well, to know the product well and to work on it as God intended.. My chistorra is lean, very soft and very tasty. We do sweet and spicy, the spicy is not very spicy, but the sweet chistorra is brought for the competition,” he says.
The Félix Aramendía butcher shop is located on Nueva de Estella street: “I’ve been there all my life. It’s a family butcher’s shop where I took over from my parents and have been there since I was little. since I was 20. All my life working. I have been there for almost 40 years and the butcher’s shop has existed for around 90 years after taking over the family business. Work and enjoy,” he says.
The problem with your butcher shop, like that of many businesses, is replacement: “I have no direct or indirect relief in the family. I don’t know what we will do in the future. I am now 60 years old and we are in the home stretch. I don’t know if we’ll last until 63 or 65. We don’t know,” explains Félix.
From now on, an avalanche of sales of chistorra is expected in their butchery: “There will surely be more work. As we have already done, a little more. People like to buy the champion chistorra. It is sold. The competition is notable but you have to fight. “There is no other choice.”
Concerning sales, already in 2017 he noticed an increase: “People like to try it and it was quite visible the first year I won the competition. In summer, the sale is more important because it is a tourist area. “It’s selling pretty well,” he concludes.
