Calasparra rice, from the Calasparra municipality of Murcia, outside of Alicante, is a unique, centuries-old short grain rice that’s perfect for making paella. It is super absorbent, swelling as much as three times its size when cooked, producing incredibly flavorful, al dente grains of cooked rice.

This amazing rice is grown in the mountains of the Spanish province of Murcia. It benefits from pure mountain water irrigation delivered by aqueducts originally built by ancient Roman engineers and updated by the area’s Moorish population a thousand years ago.