The best artisan anchovies are bought straight from the canneries in Santoña, the birthplace of anchovies in olive oil. Conservas Ana María and Conservas Emilia, both with their own shop and factory guided tours, are two reliable options where you can watch the curing process and take the freshly packed product home.
Santoña rightly claims to be the birthplace of anchovies in olive oil. The process has barely changed in over a century: fresh anchovies (boquerones) are caught between April and June, salted by hand, and left to cure in barrels for months before being cleaned, filleted, and packed one by one. The result is a world away from industrial anchovies — more character, a texture that melts in your mouth — and it's turned the town into a food destination in its own right.
The town is home to dozens of canneries, many of them family-run with generations of craft behind them, clustered mainly around the old town and the industrial estate. With so much choice, it's worth focusing on the ones that open their doors to visitors: watching the curing process in person helps explain why a tin of artisan anchovies costs what it does — and why it's worth paying for, rather than settling for the first tin at the supermarket.
Conservas Ana María: the family anchovy brand that collects awards
Founded in 1997 in Santoña, Conservas Ana María has focused on artisan anchovy production from day one, handling every step of the process by hand. The company has its own shop in the town centre, where alongside anchovies you'll find bonito del norte (white tuna), ventresca (tuna belly), and other Cantabrian Sea preserves. It's a classic stop for anyone after quality product without needing to book a visit in advance, though it's worth allowing extra time, as it fills up with curious visitors during high season. The staff's friendly manner — they'll often tell you exactly where each batch came from — is another reason the brand has built a loyal following well beyond Cantabria.
Conservas Emilia: a guided tour with a tasting at the end
Conservas Emilia offers something few canneries do on a regular basis: guided tours of their factory, walking you through the facilities while the product is being made, with a tasting included at the end. It's the most direct way to understand the craft, from selecting the anchovies to filleting them by hand, one fillet at a time. The factory and tours are in Santoña's industrial estate; for walk-in shopping without an appointment, the brand also has a shop open in the town centre.
Buying Santoña's artisan anchovies without the trip
If you're not planning to pass through Santoña, most of the town's canneries, including the two above, also sell through their own websites, with shipping across Spain. It's a reasonable way to try before you plan the trip, though prices tend to run a bit higher than buying direct from the shop, especially once shipping costs are added to small orders. It's always worth checking whether the anchovies were actually made in Santoña or just packed there using fish sourced elsewhere — it's not the same thing, and the labelling usually makes it clear if you read closely. Buying several jars at once tends to offset the shipping cost and leaves you with a few to give as gifts.
What you need to know
Santoña's artisan anchovies don't have a buying season: even though the fish is caught fresh between April and June, the curing process means the product is available year-round. Shops in the town centre tend to open mornings and part of the afternoon on weekdays, with shorter hours on Saturdays; it's worth calling ahead to confirm, especially outside high season. Guided factory tours, like the ones at Conservas Emilia, usually require booking in advance, so plan a few days ahead if your trip lands on a long weekend or bank holiday. And when you're buying, a good sign of quality is a fillet that holds together when you lift it out: the more intact the anchovy, the better the hand-filleting. Anchovies packed in virgin olive oil tend to keep their flavour better than those in more neutral oils.
Behind every tin are months of curing and minutes of hand-filleting: the difference between an artisan anchovy and an industrial one shows in the first bite.
Taking home a few tins of Santoña anchovies is, in the end, taking home a piece of a craft that's stayed almost untouched for generations. That same attention to detail is what we aim to bring to Bareyo Residences, in a corner of the Cantabrian coast where traditions like this still shape everyday life. If this has whetted your appetite, take a look at our guide to Cantabria's food scene, with more essential products to bring home. And if you're already thinking about coming back, September 2027 still has availability at our villas.
