Food & Drink of Wales

Welsh food is usually made from local ingredients.

80% of the land surface of Wales is given over to agricultural use. Very little of this is arable land. The vast majority of it is permanent grass or rough grazing. Although both beef and dairy cattle are raised widely, especially in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales is more well-known for its sheep farming, and thus lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking.

Foods in Wales include:

• bara brith: sweet bread containing currants and raisins
• cawl: stew containing lamb and leeks
• crempogs: pancakes
• faggots: a kind of pork meatball
• laverbread: seaweed, generally served delicacy
• Welshcakes: small cakes cooked on a bakestone
• Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit: toast with cheese and butter

Various cheeses are produced in Wales. These include Caerphilly cheese, y Fenni cheese, Llanboidy cheese, Red Devil, and an exceptionally strong variety of cheddar, the "Black Bomber".

There are a number of Welsh beers and more than twenty vineyards in the country. Most of the vineyards have been started since the 1970s. By contrast, Brains and Felinfoel companies have existed since the late nineteenth century, based on breweries which were yet older.

The Corona company used to make a variety of fizzy drinks in their factory in the Rhondda: the factory has now shut down, but memories of the Corona man, of collecting the bottles to collect the deposits back and of the flavours—especially cherryade and dandelion and burdock—remain, in and around the valleys in particular.