Pilavas Mastiha

Appearance: Water clear. Aroma: Fresh, breezy mastic resin. Faint pine needles, clay, and petrichor. Lovely. Taste and Texture: Initially very sweet, as are all mastiha. Beautifully creamy and syrupy (especially when chilled) with the resin having just the right presence. A comparatively mild sugar flavour. This is a good mastiha. Mrs Cascode & I fell in love with this singular liqueur when last we visited Greece and we’ve been searching for a good brand locally. The excellent Mastic Tears we found in Athens is not imported to Australia and we had been disappointed with what we had found in Sydney until we chanced on this in a nearby Greek emporium (which also has amazing custard slices and home-made feta pies). The problem we have found with all the other brands that are imported to Australia is that they have an over-emphasis on the sugar element. Yes, this is a very sweet liqueur by nature - basically just a combination of mastic resin, alcohol and sugar-syrup - but all the other brands we have tried have a very intense flavour of icing sugar. So intensely sweet that in some cases it made me grind my teeth. This is the first brand we have found locally where the resin is emphasized rather than the sugar. It is still very sweet but there is balance and character - you can taste the delicious resin properly. It’s not quite up there with Mastic Tears, but it’s the next best thing. When it is right - when it is *just* right - mastiha has that unearthly ability to transport you to a different space and time, and this one takes me back to après-dinner drinks on the harbourside at Hydra every time (seriously thinking of retiring there). If you live in Australia and have any interest in mastiha, go for this brand. You will not be sorry. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)