Mastika – Natural Gum Resin From Chios – The Flavour of Greece

 

 

Mastika, one of Greece’s super foods, is natural gum resin, with a pine or cedar-like taste, used to flavour many traditional Greek sweets.

The gum 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 mastika 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 mastika came to be known as “The Tears of Chios”.

Mastika was the first natural chewing gum in the world, in fact, today, in Greece; chewing gum is still called mastika.

 

 

When chewed mastika gum resin softens and turns into a white, opaque gum, so it’s no surprise the word mastika derives from the Latin “masticare” (masticate), meaning to chew, which in Greek is “μαστιχάω” (mastichao).

 

 

 

 

The History of Mastika

 

 

 

Mastika 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 mastika gum production.

He even believed that mastika could provide the cure for cholera!

The first mention of actual “mastika tears” was by Hippocrates, Greek physician and philosopher of the classical period, known as “The Father of Medicine”, who used mastika for the prevention of digestive problems, colds and as a breath freshener.

As it was thought to have microbial properties mastika 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 mastika gum to treat advanced gum disease.

He also promoted its use in dental care.

Mastika gum resin was officially approved as a natural remedy in 2015.

 

 

The Uses of Mastika

 

 

 

Today, mastika, 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 mastika.

 

 

What is most famously known for its unique mastic flavour though is mastika, the digestive liquor, produced since ancient times on the island of Chios.

 

 

Apart from its use for traditional Greek sweets, mastika resin has other benefits, for example its use as a stabilizer in paints and making varnishes, notably for musical instruments.

Mastika 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 Mastika 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 mastika, 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.

 

 

Mastika Production

 

 

 

The production of mastika 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 mastika 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 mastika resin harden, without any adverse effects, once it has fallen to the ground.

 

 

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 mastika are then collected and washed, piece by piece, by hand.

Most of the winters are spent separating the mastic resin tears from the sand.

 

 

 

The Chios Mastika Museum

 

 

 

 In Pyrgi Village, one of the mastika villages, is the Chios Mastika Museum, surrounded by acres of mastika trees.

 The museum houses a permanent exhibition about mastika production on the island, explaining its history and cultivation techniques as well as demonstrating its different uses today.

 

 

As well as learning about the architecture, history and organisation of the mastika villages, visitors can touch and smell the mastika.

 One section of exhibition is outdoors, which allows visitors to walk around a mastika grove.