Ouzo of excellent quality in miniature with a depiction of the typical Greek sailor. A 50ml bottle that smells like Greece!
HISTORY "FROM GOLD" BEHIND THE PRODUCT
The long Turkish occupation of Greece may justify, in a sense, the etymology of the word. So according to some linguists, the word "ouzo" comes from the Turkish entry "üzüm". "Uzum" in Turkish means either a bunch of grapes or a decoction of raisins.
But the story of the military doctor described to us by Achilles Tzarzanos is definitely more fascinating. And full of images of Greece and specifically of Thessaly in 1880. In one of his famous articles, the great philologist and linguist Tzartzanos introduces us to the Armenian Stavrak-bey, the military doctor of the Turks. So Stavrak, in the last years of the Turkish occupation of Thessaly, was in Tyrnavos, the special homeland of ouzo. There, in addition to his services, he offered with great passion and his company… ouzo outings! His accomplices in these gatherings were Antonis Makris, the cloth merchant, and the grocer Dimitris Doumenikiotis. The three friends often said it with their drink, there at Dimitris's grocery store. Then they called it "rakaki" and it was ideal to accompany their appetizers.
And time passed and as time passed, the fame of Tyrnavos in Marseilles became more and more widespread. There, the city of Thessaly exported huge quantities of silkworm cocoons, famous for their quality. With these and with them Marseille connected its name, with the quality and the refined products. So when the time came when Stavrak─ Bey, wanted a change in the taste of his raki and offered to boil it again with anise, he exclaimed enchanted when he tried it "More what is this ?? This is ouzo from Marseilles!"
Marseilles, Tyrnavos. Lesvos or Chios, ouzo has taken the place it deserves over the years. It dominates with unpretentious grandeur among its citizens, tsipouro, raki, wine etc as the authentic national product of our Greece.
PHILOLOGICAL SOURCE OF OUR HISTORY
The history of the origin of ouzo is a paraphrase from the book Articles and Studies by the great teacher, philologist and linguist Achilleas Tzartzanos, published by Costas Kakoulidis. Achilles Tzartzanos, among others, left us a legacy of the exceptional aids of the modern and ancient Greek language that have been taught for years in schools.