More about Mastiha

According to Fodors and the Lonely Planet guide, the name Chios is based on the Phoenician word for mastiha (or mastic or mastixa), which is the resin of a the lentisk bush (Pistacia lentisca) that grows on the southern part of Chios. (I wonder, from the Latin name, if it is related to pistachios?) Some folks call it "The Tear of the Shrub." Mastiha has been grown here for a long time and was used in many ways until petroleum products became available. Now it is used in cosmetics and chewing gum and food. Some Greeks, both ancient and modern, claim that it is health food that is good for digestive disorders, and many love the chewing gum that is made from it (I haven't tried that yet).
For even more about mastiha, see its Wikipedia entry.

There was a MastihaShop store in the Athens airport that had many products but that was nothing compared to the MastihaShop on the waterfront in Chios. It had an amazing array of items, some pure mastiha (in little pellets and tablets), others with mastiha as ingredient (jam, cookies, chocolate, chewing gum), and others with no mastiha at all. I bought some mastiha cookies that look like butter cookies or shortbread. I had a couple, and they are good with a definite but not strong citrus taste.

The box I bought has Greek and English text. The cookies are made by a local baker and sold by the Chios Mastiha Growers Association, who run the MastihaShop. (I couldn't help but think of the strawberry growers' and kumquat growers' groups that we know back home.)