Cocktails with Mastiha liqueur
Mastiha liqueur is a sweetened liqueur flavoured with the aromatic resin of the mastic tree, grown above all on the Greek island of Chios.
ABV30%
Taste profile
Silky and moderately sweet, with a distinctive pine-resin and cedar aroma and a long, cooling finish.
How it's used
Sip it chilled as a digestif, or use it in cocktails — as a lightly sweet, aromatic base, or in small measures as an accent alongside other spirits. Its resinous aroma has no real substitute, so it's hard to replace when it's the star and easy to leave out when it's just a trace. Like ouzo, it louches milky when water is added.
Substitutes for Mastiha liqueur
There's no true like-for-like — you can rebuild the sweetness with syrup and the strength with a neutral spirit, but the mastic-resin aroma can't be copied from anything common.
Often confused with
Ouzo / anise spirits
Mastiha is a sweet liqueur defined by its pine-resin mastic aroma; ouzo is a dry anise spirit. They're quite different flavour bases — and confusingly, in some Balkan countries (such as Bulgaria) 'mastika' means an ouzo-style anise spirit rather than the Greek resin liqueur. Both turn milky when water is added.
