Crepuscolo sul Chio

campari - mastic

• 1.5 part campari

• 1 part dry mastiha spirit

• 1 part club soda

• squeeze of lemon

• slice of cucumber (for garnish)

stir all ingredients in high ball glass with ice

garnish with lemon wheel and cucumber slice

notes:

Mastic is an aromatic sap that comes from an eponymous shrub that grows only one place in the world: the island of Chios in the eastern Aegean Sea. Since ancient times it's been used for a myriad of things: as a medicine, chewing gum, digestive aid, as a flavoring for desserts, ice cream, coffee, and of course, most importantly, booze.

The flavor is a bit hard to pin down. It is sometimes described as piney, which makes sense since it's the sap of an evergreen, but it's more subtle than that. It doesn't have the astringency of juniper or rosemary, it's more floral, almost like cedar.

Mastiha is the common name for the liqueur flavored with this sap. It's most often served chilled and sipped neat from a small glass. Depending on the producer it can vary in sweetness and strength. For this cocktail in particular I would recommend a bottle on the drier side.

I took the name of the cocktail from a song title, Crepuscolo sul Mare. It means Twilight over the Sea, and it's possibly the most Mediterranean song ever written. From the first strains of the guitar you're transported to an island somewhere, flying along cliff-hugging roads at dusk on your vespa, cicadas echoing through the oleander bushes and olive groves. Sigh.

Mastiha holds that same kind of sense memory magic for me, and so does Campari, so what else to do but combine them with a splash of soda, and make an aperitif that can take me to Chios anytime?

As a bonus here's my personal Mediterranean Island Hopping soundtrack: