The Tears of Chios – Mastic ice cream adventures

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23 Responses

  1. David says:

    Fascinating ice cream recipes, Anders, especially the one with mastic, which I’d really like to try — but where can one buy mastic (mastix på svenska, I think) in Sthlm? Hope you can help!

    • Anders says:

      David, thanks for your kind words.

      The mastic recipe is indeed fascinating, but unfortunately, I have no idea where to find mastic in Stockholm. The only mastic sold in Sweden which I managed to find via google seemed made for make-up purposes (where the mastic is used as an adhesive), and may contain things you do not want to end up in your ice cream 😉 . So unless you or someone you know are planning on going to Greece (there is a major shop dedicated to Mastic and mastic-products in Athens), I fear that mail order might be the easiest way of getting hold of it. Best of luck!

    • we can send you direct from chios greece – write me

      steve

  2. Amit says:

    I tried it in a vegan version, with soy milk to replace the milk and coconut cream to replace the cream, and it came out just great!

  3. franciss abi aad says:

    I am specialist in this ice cream – mastic you can’t boil it long time – after u finished your basic ice cream add mastic for 90 second only and switch the fire off
    It is very nice ice cream famous in Lebanon when use salab and water roe and flower water beside fat of milk

    • Anders says:

      Dear Franciss,
      Thanks for your comment – I will try your suggestion about only cooking the mastic for 90 seconds next time I make myself a batch 🙂

  4. Nicole ADAMS says:

    I just come back from Cyprus and discoved Mastica ice cream…..Absolutely fantastic!!!! I love it , I will try to make yours ( I have several jars of mastika…) with the 90 seconds suggestion. Thank you.

  5. we offer all icecreamnation visitors a 10% discount on mastic tears or mastic powder

    best regards

    steve stamatis
    exports manager

  6. Jesper says:

    Hi, I have been trying to make a mastic flavoured soda, but Im have huge problems in dissolving it. I grind it and the add it to cold water. When i heat the powder turns into glue-like particle that stick to anything and only can be removed with Acetone.
    Should I only heat to 40-50 C or ?

    Hope to hear from someone

    regards Jesper

    • Anders says:

      Hi Jesper,
      I must admit that I’ve never tried to make soda on mastic, but it sounds like an interesting project! One possibility you might want to try could be to add the finely ground mastic directly to boiling water and see if that does the trick. Best of luck!

      • Jesper says:

        I tried to add it to a hot sugar solution and the result was the same.
        I got the soda when I was visiting Chios some years ago, and now I would like to make it myself.
        The taste of the soda was really refreshing.

  7. Hello Jesper, you must use mastic oil aroma in order to achive this which we can sell you we are also can send you mastic water to add to your soda and we can send you mastic soda all ready made feel free to write to me.
    steve

  8. amy says:

    hi..wondering can we dissolve mastic gum into a liquid like water to drink?

    i have mastic gum capsules and also the tears

    • Anders says:

      Dear Amy,

      I have not tried that myself, but I know that there are drinks based on mastic gum and water. Since it is a kind of resin, however, I would suspect that it might be somewhat more complicated than just mixing the two and hoping that the gum simply will dissolve. Perhaps you simply will have to do some experimenting 🙂

    • Nikolas says:

      Commercial mastic drinks are made with steam distillation. Unfortunately mastic cannot be dissolved into water…

    • Nikolas says:

      It can however be dissolved in alcohol and used for liquors! Here is a recipe:

      1kg sugar
      500ml water
      1 tsp citric acid
      1 tsp mastic gum
      1 cup cognac/tsipouro (vodka might do as well)

      Pulverise the mastic
      Heat the water and the sugar, mixing until the sugar is dissolved. When it reaches a boiling temperature, add the citric acid and boil for 20 minutes in low heat. Let it cool for a while and add the mastic while still warm. Add the drink when the syrup has got cold. Place in a bottle and seal well.

  9. Sam k says:

    There is a seller called Steenberg on Amazon who sells a 13g pot of mastika drops.
    I have just ordered some and will be adding to the middle eastern sweet called cream kanafe.

  10. Nadia says:

    Have you ever used gum acacia/ gum arabic in ice cream? It is very similar to in properties to the mastic gum but it is obtained from the hardened sap of the acacia tree found in some parts of the middle east and south asia. It helps prevent the crystalisation of sugar, is tasteless and dissolves in cold and hot water. Although very high heat can change the way the gum will behave.

    • Anders says:

      Hi Nadia,
      Yes, although I don’t think I have posted any recipe with gum arabic here yet. Thanks for reminding about the gum! It is v ery efficient as far as I can recall (although you, of course, miss out on the “pine” aspect of mastica ;-)).

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