Crafted the Old Way
Time-Honoured
Harvesting mastiha is patient, hands-on work. Growers carefully score the tree so the resin can weep out and slowly harden into crystalline 'tears,' which are then gathered, cleaned and sorted by hand — a craft passed down through generations and little changed by time.
- The 'kentos' — bark scored by hand with an iron tool
- Resin hardens naturally into crystalline 'tears'
- Gathered, washed and sorted entirely by hand
The 'kentos'
The harvest proper begins in high summer. From around July into September, growers perform the 'kentos' — making dozens of small, deliberate incisions in the bark and branches of each tree with a little sharp iron tool called a 'kentitiri.' It is skilled, repetitive work: cut too little and the tree gives nothing, too much and you harm it. Beneath each tree the earth is first swept smooth and dusted with fine white calcium carbonate, a natural preparation that keeps the falling droplets clean and makes the tears far easier to collect.
Gathering the tears
Wherever the bark is scored, the tree weeps a clear, sticky sap that drips toward the ground. Under the intense Aegean sun it slowly hardens into uneven, crystalline tears over a matter of days. From mid-August the first and largest tears are gathered, and the harvest continues in waves through the following weeks, the smaller pieces lifted by hand or gently swept from the prepared ground. It is patient, back-bending work, carried out tree by tree across the hottest months of the year.
Washed and sorted by hand
The work is far from over once the resin is collected. Each batch is washed and then cleaned and sorted entirely by hand — often by the women of the household, over the winter months — with every tear picked over to remove dust and imperfections and graded by size and quality. Only then is it ready. From the first cut to the finished resin, mastiha passes through human hands at nearly every step, exactly as it has for centuries.
Taste the tradition