Grown Only on Chios
The Mastic Tree
The mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia) is a hardy evergreen that produces mastiha — the aromatic resin at the heart of everything we import. Remarkably, it yields this resin only in the south of the Greek island of Chios, where the particular climate and soils coax the trees to weep their fragrant 'tears.'
- Botanical name: Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia
- Produces true mastiha resin only in southern Chios
- A slow-growing, long-lived evergreen shrub
A tree that grows nowhere else
The mastic tree is a bushy evergreen shrub of the Anacardiaceae — the same botanical family as the cashew and pistachio. The wider lentisk grows all around the Mediterranean, yet in a quirk of nature it yields harvestable mastiha only in the southern part of Chios, the region known as the Mastichochoria, or 'mastic villages.' Generations of growers, and modern researchers alike, credit the island's particular combination of mild climate, limestone soils and long, dry, sunlit summers for coaxing the resin from the tree. Attempts to reproduce it elsewhere have never matched the real thing — which is exactly why authentic Chios mastiha is so prized.
The 'tears' of Chios
When the bark and branches are lightly scored, the tree responds by secreting a clear, fragrant resin. At first it is soft and sticky, but under the summer sun it slowly sets into small, irregular, teardrop-shaped crystals — the famous 'tears of Chios.' Fresh mastiha is translucent and brittle, with a clean, pine-and-cedar aroma and a subtly sweet, herbal taste that softens as it is chewed. It is this raw resin, harvested drop by drop, that gives everything we import its character.
Slow to grow, generations to tend
Mastic trees are in no hurry. A young tree takes several years before it begins to give resin, and once it does it can remain productive for decades, with many trees living well beyond a century. Because a grove is effectively a lifetime's investment, the trees are pruned, cleaned and cared for year-round and handed down through families — a living relationship between tree, land and grower that no factory can replicate.
Taste the tradition