Ouzo

Without doubt ouzo is Greek But it epitomizes Mytilene!
“The ritual of ouzo has as much to do with sating hunger as lovemaking does with reproduction.”
Deipnosophistai ("The Learned Banquet")

Perhaps it’s the aniseed, whose plant has origins going back more than 3000 years, that is responsible for creating that intoxicating aura. But the alcohol also plays a part as it passes through the ancient still, the amvyka, transforming as the distillations blend with the aromatic seeds into this ethereal fragrant liquor that answers to the name of ouzo.

Diluted with water or straight up, ouzo is the drink for company and relaxation. It fills the Mediterranean with its fragrance, as pastis and anisette in France, as arac on the African coast, but as ouzo only in Greece.
The air in Mytilene smells of ouzo and the atmosphere intoxicates locals and visitors alike. For Lesvos natives, the first contact with ouzo comes when grandma dips her finger in the spirited liquor and rubs it on the gums of her teething infant grandchild. You could say that its scent and sweet intoxication are recorded on every inhabitant’s DNA.

From then on, ouzo becomes like the sea with the quaint tavernas that spread their little tables by the water’s edge, together with the endless mezes whose play of tastes seduces mind and soul.