Your Guide to Chios
What to See and Do

A Fascinating Foray Around The Capital of Chios Island

Chios: Aegean Winemaking and Undiscovered Adventures
Beaches, Beach Bars and Activities

Chios’ Coast: Gorgeous Beaches of the North Aegean

Beach Bars on the North Aegean Island of Chios

A Tour of the Enchanting Island of Chios

Useful Telephone Numbers – Chios

Getting There and Around – Chios

Your Driving Tips for Chios

July, somewhere in southern Chios. At this time of the year most Greeks go or think about going on holiday. That’s not the case for Nikos K. Nor for any of the rest of the mastic producers. This is when the harvest, known as kentos, perhaps the most important process in mastic production, takes place. “It requires special care, which is why producers usually choose to do it themselves”, he explains.

14

Producers carefully score the mastic tree trunks with small iron tools called “kentitiria”. Then mastic sap drops seep out of these incisions, like crystalline teardrops, bringing in mind Dimos Avdeliotis’ film “The Tree We Hurt” (Original title: “Το Δέντρο που πληγώναμε”) set in this very place. Getting here, however, took a lot of work. Namely, this procedure has been preceded by ploughing the soil and pruning the trees in winter, followed by a circular cleaning of the area around each tree and covering it with white earth (inert calcium carbonate). This is where the precious tears fall after they’ve hardened, staying in the ground for several days until they solidify. “Kentos always takes place early in the morning and no more than once a week, so as not to harm the tree, for a period of one and a half to two months. Anyone wishing to do this job should know that one cannot become a producer without putting a lot of personal work in to it”, says Nikos.

After August 15, the mastic harvest begins, also without machinery. Its done by hand, with brooms or with special spatula- like tools called “timitiria”. The mastic is transferred in wooden crates and stored in cool places as long as temperatures remain high. A second harvest takes place after mid-September. Another process called “kentia”, i.e. the harvesting of dry mastic from the trunk of the tree, also takes place at this time.

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About 200 tons of mastic are produced annually in the Mastic villages of Chios/ Photo: Klairi Moustafelou
“Kentos always takes place early in the morning and no more than once a week, so as not to harm the tree”/ Photo: Klairi Moustafelou
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Photo: Klairi Moustafelou

For some years now, the Chios Mastic Growers’ Association has purchased mechanical sieves, which clearly facilitate production. But even so, from autumn to spring you will see women -many women- working in the traditional way, namely, “dandling” the mastic, as it is called here. They sift the mastic, wash it with soap and cold water and then let it dry. And after that, whether the sifting has been done mechanically or by hand, the “tweaking” process begins. The latter is done with knives and other pointed objects in order to remove dust, pebbles, or anything else that might have stuck to the mastic. It’s a delicate job that needs to be done. Usually one woman helps the other to finish her own production, so the whole process is faster. The terminology of mastication could be even more elaborate. Terminology that shows that mastication has not changed much overtime. Suffice it to say that mastic eventually ends up at the Chios Mastiha Growers’ Association, where a second “tweaking” will take place and the mastic will be separated in categories: coarse, fine or powder. The know-how of traditional mastic cultivation and harvesting has been included by UNESCO of its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014.

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We are in the Mastic villages of Chios. Here live and work around 4.600 producers who have made Chios famous all over the world, thanks to this unique product. How many people and how many families are indirectly related to the production is difficult to measure, but it is certainly the second most important economic activity of the island after shipping. Attempts to cultivate mastic have been done elsewhere, yet only here, in this part of Chios, do we have this result. About 200 tones of mastic are produced here every year, 60% of the production is exported, mainly to Middle Eastern countries. The cultivation began in antiquity and was systematized during the period when Chios was under the occupation of the Republic of Genoa, from 1344 to 1566. At that time, the mastic trees were counted and “nationalized”, while 24 settlements, the Mastic villages, were built in locations that were not visible and easily accessible to pirates. To give you an idea of how important the product was at that time, the punishment for stealing 10 kilos of mastic resin was having your ear cut off. If the theft exceeded 200 pounds, the punishment was death by hanging.

Today, it is the Chios Mastic Growers Association that continues the cultivation and production. It was founded in 1938 and coordinates the 20 primary cooperatives of the Mastic villages. It is a “compulsory cooperative”, meaning that all producers are obliged to deliver all their production to the Union and the Union is obliged to receive and purchase it. This solution was chosen in order to protect producers, especially small producers, from the speculative pressured exerted on them by mastic traders and intermediaries. Through the Association, producers have a secure market for their product and, thus, a stable income. The Association buys the mastic at a price of between €68 and €91 per kilogram, depending on the quality. The price seems very high at first sight, one would think that one can become rich with just a few trees. However, it should be mentioned that each tree does not produce more than 150-200 grams of mastic per year.

The Association may once have been created to protect small producers, but eventually its growth and development went far beyond mere protection. In 2020, production reached 216 tonnes. “But demand outstrips supply. New producers are entering or want to enter the business” explains Mr Yiannis Kapetanos, a producer himself and member of the board of the Association. Scientific publicity has also contributed to the success. In recent years, the scientific community with numerous studies has highlighted its beneficial and therapeutic properties for digestion, oral hygiene and skin. “Science has confirmed and documented what history and human experience had already recorded, which is yet another factor in the development of mastic cultivation,” explains Mr Kapetanos.

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In 2020, production reached 216 tonnes/ Photo: Klairi Moustafelou
ELMA chewing gum is produced by the Chios Mastic Growers Association/ Photo: Klairi Moustafelou

Before the harvest, the area around the trees is cleared and covered with white earth/ Photo: Klairi Moustafelou

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Photo: Klairi Moustafelou
Mastic of Chios/Photo: Klairi Moustafelou

From Athens to Mesta, Chios and ecotourism

In 2006 Roula Boura and her husband Vassilis were both working in a big company in Athens, with good positions and salaries. But they wanted to change something in their lives. So in 2006 they took the big decision and came to Mesta in Chios, Vassilis’ place of origin, and started to work in the production of mastic. “Our decision was not financially motivated, we wanted a change,” says Roula. New beginnings are always difficult. “On our first day in the field -it was July- it took us one hour and a half to prepare one single tree”, Roula recounts. But there is nothing one cannot learn. So, in just a few days the speed multiplied and they even reached a point where they can guide others in this unique world. “Our goal was to combine production with ecotourism, to create something interesting for us and, at the same time, to highlight this extraordinary product”, Roula explains. This is how Masticulture was created, which during the summer season organizes excursions to the fields of mastic trees. There visitors can see the whole process of production, up close, even participate. Of course, visitors also learn about the history of the region and the mastic production. The excursion ends with a picnic of local products. “At the time we started there was no such thought of ecotourism on the island, there were very few similar attempts in Greece. But the locals seemed particularly positive,” explains Roula to Travel.gr. “There was a particular response because it coincided with a period when more and more people showed interest in environmental issues and traditional crops.”

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Roula has not regretted this choice. “Like the whole hospitality sector, we were also hit by the pandemic. But to live in a place like Chios, to see this process up close, to be part of this tradition, this piece of humanity’s intangible heritage is something I wouldn’t trade for anything”.

What is “the tree we hurt”

The mastic tree or schinos (scientifically Pistacia Lentiscus var. Chia of the Anacardaceae family), is an evergreen shrub. Its height usually reaches 2-3 m, its growth is slow and it can take up to 50 years to be completed. Mastic trees are a main element of the vegetation of Mediterranean villages, but only in the Mastic villages do the specific characteristics of the soil and micro-climate, together with traditional cultivation, finally produce such an impressive result. The mastic of Chios is the resinous secretion of the mastic tree. It is a natural, aromatic resin secreted from the trunk and large branches of the mastic tree. The hardness of the resin depends on the temperature of the atmosphere, how long it is left exposed to nature and the size of the piece.

Visit

The Chios Mastic Growers’ Association

The Chios Mastic Museum