Skinos Mastiha

The singular flavour of this clear spirit is hard to describe: the bouquet brings a sun drenched rocky Mediterranean hillside covered in wild herbs, like crushed juniper berries and fresh torn spearmint leaves, like the hauntingly deep aromas of rain soaked cedar wood and violet essential oil. It's gently sweet yet refreshing, unctuous yet delicate, and its balance makes it highly versatile.

The country of Greece is known for the Olympics, the Parthenon, and hundreds of scenic islands. But outside of Greece little was known about the Mastiha tree. The Mastiha shrub grows throughout the Mediterranean but only the trees on the island of Chios weep the resin from which the legendary mastic spice is obtained. Skinos Mastiha Spirit regards itself as the "truly Mediterranean spirit." The spirit has its founding in 10th century BCE as a Greek cure for intestinal problems and breath freshening. It was known as Mastiha and later referred to as skinos. Mastiha is actually the resin from a particular tree that is obtained by pricking the bark and collecting the sap as it runs out... for this reason, it is call "the crying tree." The mastiha is macerated in grain alcohol, then blended with sugar and mineral water before bottling. Its long history of use as therapeutic survives to this day where the it's claimed it can cure peptic ulcers.