Poli Museo della Grappa Srlu

An old liquor

• Plant: Mastic (Pistacia Lentiscus)
• Plant part: fruit, leaf
• Plant feauters: astringent, diuretic, antiseptic, antidiarrheal, balsamic

• Description:

  The mastic was very much appreciated in West Asia and was used as a gum, smoking and tobacco mixture, as stains and even as a flavor for spirits.
  It is about the resin that is still obtained from mastic, a low, branched bush, typical of the Mediterranean, for its reddish flowers, small leathery leaves and red or black stone fruits.
  The whole plant has a strong resinous scent.
  It was probably exactly this smell, similar to that of the terpentine, which already made the plant known as a remedy in ancient times.

The recipe

• Ingredients:

  - some leaves and ripe fruits of mastic
  - 1 liter of Grappa
  - 2 tbsp of sugar

• Preparation:

  Add a few branches including leaves and ripe fruit for one month in a liter of Grappa. After appropriate filtering and aging (two months), the Grappa takes a pink color and a resinous scent.
  Two tablespoons of sugar softens the resinous flavor that characterizes this Grappa.