Mastic – Natural Gum Resin From Chios – The Flavour of Greece
Mastic – Tears of Chios
Mastic is natural gum resin, with a pine or cedar-like taste, used to flavour many traditional Greek sweets and is collected from the Schinias trees which grow profusely on the Greek Aegean island of Chios.
Although the Schinias tree (Pistacia lentiscus) is found in other Mediterranean countries it only produces mastic resin on the island of Chios, presumably because of the island’s unique micro-climate.
The resin, which has been harvested in Greece for at least 2,500 years, dries into brittle, translucent droplets on the tree trunks, resembling tears; hence mastic came to be known as “The Tears of Chios”.
Mastic was the first natural chewing gum in the world, in fact, today, in Greece; chewing gum is still called mastica.
Elma Classic Chios Mastic Chewing Gum
When chewed mastic gum resin softens and turns into a white, opaque gum, so it’s no surprise the word mastic derives from the Latin “masticare” (masticate), meaning to chew, which in Greek is “μαστιχάω” (mastichao).
Mastic Grove – Chios
The History of Mastic
Drops of solidified Mastic Resin
Mastic resin was first mentioned by the fifth century B.C Greek historian, Herodotus, who mentioned its use in embalming.
Christopher Columbus, who sailed to Chios in 1474 and stayed for about a year, wrote many pages about the island in his journal.
He was particularly impressed with its red soil and astonished with its mastic gum production.
He even believed that mastic could provide the cure for cholera!
The first mention of actual “mastic tears” was by Hippocrates, Greek physician and philosopher of the classical period, known as “The Father of Medicine”, who used mastic for the prevention of digestive problems, colds and as a breath freshener.
As it was thought to have microbial properties mastic was widely used medicinally in the past and chewed to neutralise foul breath.
In the 15th century, Andrés Laguna de Segovia (1499 -1559), a respected Spanish humanist physician, pharmacologist and botanist used mastic gum to treat advanced gum disease.
He also promoted its use in dental care.
Mastic gum resin was officially approved as a natural remedy in 2015
The Uses of Mastic
100% natural mastic gum from Chios – Since 1997 it has been designated as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product
Today, mastic, with its slightly pine or cedar-like taste, is mostly used to flavour many delicious traditional Greek desserts. Tsoureki, sweet Easter bread and the “ypovrikio” (submarine), a chewy sweet traditional Greek treat served on a spoon dipped in a glass of cold water, as well as many ice creams, pastries and puddings are flavored with mastic.
Traditional Greek sweets flavoured with mastic
What is most famously known for its unique mastic flavour though is mastica, the digestive liquor, produced since ancient times on the island of Chios.
Mastika, the digestive liquor from Chios
Apart from its use for traditional Greek sweets, mastic resin has other benefits, for example its use as a stabilizer in paints and making varnishes, notably for musical instruments.
Mastic is also a key ingredient of chrism (Greek χρίσμα, meaning ointment or anoint), the holy oil used for anointing during services of the Orthodox Church, especially those of baptism and anointing of the sick (unction).
Chrism is sometime referred to as myrrh (from the Greek μύρων), holy oil, or consecrated oil.
The Chios Gum Mastic Growers Association
The Chios Gum Mastic Growers Association
The mastic production on the island of Chios is controlled by “The Chios Gum Mastic Growers Association”, founded in 1938, and is the exclusive manufacturer and distributor of Chios mastic, both in Greece and abroad.
“Masticha Chiou” (“Chios mastic”) is protected by a European Union protected designation of origin (PDO).
The association lists over sixty uses of the mastic which is grown in twenty four villages of southern Chios know as “Mastihohória”, meaning “The Mastic Villages’:
Lithi, Vessa, Elata, Mesta, Olympoi, Pyrgi, Armolia, Kalamoti, Patrika, Flatsia, Nenita, Vouno, Koini, Pagida, Katarraktis, Exo Didyma, Mesa Didyma, Mermigki, Tholo Potami, Kallimasia, Neochori, Thymiana, Vaviloi and Agios Georgios Sykousis.
Mastic Production
Vassilis Ballas and his wife, Roula Boura, extract resin from a mastic tree on Chios – Photo – Eirini Vourloumis – New York Times
The production of mastic resin is a complicated and laborious year-long process.
It involves first cleaning and leveling the soil which makes it easier to gather the fallen mastic drops.
After the trunk has been cut in specific places the resin, the tears of Chios, begins to flow.
After clearing the area, inert calcium carbonate is spread below the trees, this helps the mastic resin harden, without any adverse effects, once it has fallen to the ground.
Mastic Trees – Chios
Next, around every five days, from five to ten incisions are made in the bark of each tree which allows the release the resin.
(It takes fifteen to twenty days for the first resin crystal tears to harden and fall to the ground.)
The harvest, known as kentos, takes place from the beginning of July up until the beginning of October.
The pieces of dry mastic are then collected and washed, piece by piece, by hand.
Most of the winters are spent separating the mastic resin tears from the sand.
Women sorting mastic drops outside their homes in Pyrgi, Chios – Photo – Georgios Makkas
The Chios Mastic Museum
Chios Mastic Museum
In Pyrgi Village, one of the mastica villages, is the Chios Mastic Museum, surrounded by acres of mastic trees.
The museum houses a permanent exhibition about mastic production on the island, explaining its history and cultivation techniques as well as demonstrating its different uses today.
The Chios Mastic Museum – Pyrgi – Chios
As well as learning about the architecture, history and organisation of the mastic villages, visitors can touch and smell the mastic.
One section of exhibition is outdoors, which allows visitors to walk around a mastic grove.
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