Discover the Chios based state-of-the-art distillery that produces the renowned, smoky and pungent “Ouzo Kazanisto” and the uniquely powerful and aromatic “Homeric” mastiha liqueur
Discovery
There is a popular phrase in Greek, “onoma kai pragma”, typically slippery to translate, as are most idioms, but it roughly means “what it says on the tin”. Stoupakis’ Ouzo Kazanisto from Chios is precisely reflective of its production method. It’s produced in copper cauldrons, which yield a smoky and pungent ouzo, with no added sugar, hence its confident claim that it does not cause headaches!
I remember from my childhood summers spent in Chios, that Stoupakis was recognized by discerning ouzo fans. Its bottle is also distinctive. Clear glass, with graphic bronze elements, proudly featuring a map of Chios flanked by two windmills, buildings not normally associated with the island!
Over the years Stoupakis’ distillery has evolved its packaging from ornate Art Deco multicoloured images to this sleek contemporary branding. Their sixties’ labels conjure up those endless and carefree summer days of my youth spent in our sprawling coastal summer house, facing the scrappy and unremarkable beach of Chios town.
Stoupakis uses authentic mastiha purchased from the Chios Mastic Association, distills it for 8 hours in copper cauldrons and delivers an aromatic and powerful extract
Memory
In 1900, when the substantial Northern Aegean island of Chios was still under Turkish rule, one Ioannis Stoupakis, father of seven, decided to travel from the village of Tallaros in the fertile plain of Kambos to another village, his hometown of Dafnona, to produce olive oil and ouzo.
Setting up his plant utilizing traditional copper cauldrons and brewing from exceptionally fine aniseed seeds, his ouzo soon generated a following in the region and he obtained a permit from the local Turkish powers to officially to produce the beverage.
In 2008 the production unit was updated with contemporary facilities and equipment, while retaining the heritage of the original recipe.
The mother of my childhood best friend Markella, charmingly still called Beba (baby girl) at age 97, used to tell us that the secret to a calm digestive tract was a glass of chilled Homeric Mastiha liqueur. I instantly believed her, and I still do
Stoupakis also proudly produces Homeric Mastiha Liqueur. Instead of aniseed, the raw material is Chian mastic, the gum-like resin of the indigenous Chian mastic trees. Stoupakis uses authentic mastiha purchased from the Chios Mastic Association, distills it for 8 hours in copper cauldrons and delivers an aromatic and powerful extract.
The mother of my childhood best friend Markella, charmingly still called Beba (baby girl) at age 97, used to tell us that the secret to a calm digestive tract was a glass of chilled Homeric Mastiha liqueur. I instantly believed her, and I still do.
Stoupakis’ Ouzo Kazanisto from Chios is precisely reflective of its production method. It’s produced in copper cauldrons, which yield a smoky and pungent ouzo, with no added sugar, hence its confident claim that it does not cause headaches!
Narration
In our summer house, the bar was dismally situated inside a dark wooden dresser in a forbidding room. The ouzo bottles, ice bucket and my parents would all be transplanted onto the back balcony however, to a pop-up bar on a white iron work table. I remember the warm evenings, the smell of aniseed carried by the breeze and the feeling of being included by the grownups.
Now that many years later, Stoupakis’ mastiha is one of my favourite after dinner drinks. Its distinctive tear shaped bottle reflects the shape of the pearly resin from the mastiha tree.
The production and cultivation of this gum-like substance is long. A tree excretes this resin only after five years but can live up to a hundred. The cultivation process requires meticulous stages of preparation and skillful incisions into the bark, to allow the mastiha to seep out. From mid-August until November, the harvesting, drying and cleaning takes place, performed with patience and devotion handed down through the generations.
