Every year, two and a half thousand bee colonies owned by the Mouriki family set out on travels across Greece, following the flowering cycles and honey flows of the country’s rich and diverse flora. In coastal thyme fields near Galaxidi, they harvest thyme honey; in Delphi, blossom honey; on Milos and Kimolos, honey scented with lavender and wild herbs; on the peaks of Mt Parnon, the famed fir “vanilla” honey; and, in the rugged mountains of Giona and Vardousia, red fir honey.
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Their journey takes them as far as Thassos for that island’s renowned pine honey, to Evrytania for the region’s distinctive oak honey, and to Sithonia in Halkidiki for rare heather honey. They even reach the untouched chestnut forests of Mount Athos, where they gather blossoms and honeydew from the trees to produce an exceptional and rare chestnut honey of outstanding quality.
These widely traveled bee colonies are the property of the Mouriki family, who have practiced nomadic beekeeping for two generations. In recent years, their honeys have consistently stood out in Gastronomos tastings. This year, their exceptional chestnut honey drew particular acclaim, with its deep amber color, its fluid texture, its full-bodied, rich and subtly smoky flavor, and its aromas reminiscent of chestnut and fine liqueur.
Siblings Maria and Panagiotis Mouriki took over the 300 beehives of their father, Anastasios – himself a beekeeper since 1960 – and transformed them into today’s impressive total of 2,500. Panagiotis, the youngest of four siblings, was the one who, from a very early age, would stay up late to travel with his father and their bees.
“Bees need quiet, calm, and cool air. That’s why I always transported my hives at night. No matter how quietly I moved so as not to wake the rest of the family, Panagiotis – even when he was just a tiny little boy – would rouse himself, begging me to take him along,” recalls Anastasios.
Panagiotis likes to say that he isn’t just a beekeeper, he’s also a driver, a painter, a handyman, a farmer who can ‘read’ the landscape of each foraging ground, and even a meteorologist, able to interpret weather conditions.
It was 2017 when Maria joined the family business and succeeded in taking their honey as far as Paris – where it is indeed sold at Galeries Lafayette – as well as to South Korea. In Dervenochoria (a short distance north of historic Elefsina), the family has built a new, ultra-modern, privately owned processing and packaging facility that meets all contemporary standards, ensuring the highest product quality possible. And they’ve achieved all this without ever joining state-funded development programs or taking out bank loans.
In the small shop they opened on pedestrianized Georgiou Pavlou Street beside the archaeological site of Elefsina, visitors can taste – spoonful by spoonful – the whole of Greece. Through the guided walks they organize, the family invites people to rediscover the beauty of Elefsina, known since antiquity for the Eleusinian Mysteries and as the birthplace of Aeschylus, but also as a renowned fishing and beekeeping area, rich in olive, eucalyptus and pistachio trees. Through their outreach activities – and especially with their work with schools – they’re introducing the public to the magical world of the bee.
Maria dedicated Gastronomos magazine’s Honey Production Award to their beloved hometown, while Panagiotis pledged in his acceptance speech that: “We will continue with the same faith, love, and determination to take Greek honey where it truly deserves to be – and where it truly deserves to be is higher than the sky itself.”
This article was previously published in Greek at gastronomos.gr.
