Cretan products to taste and take home

Crete produces much of what it eats, and many of its products have a protected designation of origin. Here's a guide to the ones worth tasting, buying at a village shop or market, and bringing home.

Olive oil

Olive oil is the foundation of Cretan cuisine, and the island has tens of millions of olive trees, some of them thousands of years old. Most of the oil comes from the small Koroneiki olive and is extra virgin, green and peppery when fresh. Areas like Sitia, Kolymvari, Peza, Viannos and the Messara have their own PDO oils. Many olive mills and estates offer tastings, where you learn to taste oil like wine.

Cheese

Graviera: the king of Cretan cheese, a hard, nutty cheese from sheep and goat milk, aged for at least five months. Some producers still mature it in mountain caves.
Mizithra: a soft, fresh whey cheese, slightly sweet, used in pies and sweets. Xinomizithra is its sour version, creamy and tangy.
Pichtogalo of Chania: a PDO soft cheese from Chania, a type of xinomizithra with a creamy texture, made only with milk from the Chania area.
Xygalo of Sitia: a PDO spreadable cheese from goat or sheep milk, fresh, slightly sour and salty. Lovely on bread or rusks.
Tyrozouli: a simple fresh cheese made by heating goat milk with vinegar or lemon, eaten with thyme honey. In Anogia it's called tyromalama. Malaka, young unripe graviera, is used for kalitsounia and boureki.
Anthotiro: a soft whey cheese, fresh or dried, often grated over pasta.
Staka: not a cheese but the rich cream that forms on heated sheep and goat milk, cooked with eggs, rice or pasta.

Cured meat

Apaki is Crete's smoked pork. Strips of pork are marinated in vinegar, then smoked over aromatic herbs such as sage, thyme, oregano and thrubi, and eaten in thin slices or fried with eggs. Siglino is pork preserved in its own fat.

Honey

Cretan honey is mostly thyme honey, thick and aromatic, collected from the wild thyme that covers the hills. There are also pine, heather and orange blossom honeys. Try it with yoghurt, tyrozouli or simply on bread.

Herbs and mountain tea

Crete has more than 2,000 plants, about 200 of them endemic. Herbs are part of everyday life: oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram and thrubi for cooking, and many more for teas.

Dittany (erontas): the most famous endemic herb, growing on steep cliffs and gorges. It has been used as a medicine since antiquity, and its name in Cretan means love, as young men risked their lives to pick it for their sweethearts.
Malotira: Cretan mountain tea, gathered on the high plateaus of Psiloritis and the White Mountains, a warming, soothing drink.
Sage tea and dittany tea are sold in every village shop.

Carob

Carob trees grow wild across Crete, and their sweet pods have fed people for centuries. Today carob flour is used in rusks, biscuits and as a natural substitute for chocolate. There's even a wild carob forest in the Asterousia mountains.

Fruit and vegetables

Citrus: oranges from the valleys around Chania (Alikianos, Fournes) and Skines are famous, along with lemons and grapefruit.
Chestnuts (marrons): small, sweet and smoky Cretan chestnuts from the villages of Elos and the Inachori area, celebrated at the October chestnut festival.
Avocados: Crete is the main avocado growing area in Greece, especially around Chania.
Karanos cherries: the cherries of the village of Karanos near Chania, in season in early summer.
Lasithi plateau: famous for potatoes, Firiki apples and strawberries, grown on the fertile plain at 850 m.
Early vegetables from the greenhouses of Ierapetra and Tymbaki supply all of Greece in winter.

Bread and rusks

Barley rusks (paximadia) are dried slowly so they keep for months, and they're the base of dakos. Eftazymo bread, made with a chickpea starter, is a speciality of the Heraklion area. Special decorated breads are baked for weddings and holidays.

Drinks

Tsikoudia (raki): a clear spirit distilled from grape pomace after the wine harvest. It's served everywhere as a sign of hospitality, often with a small meze or sweet. In autumn, villages celebrate the distilling season (kazanemata) with music and food.
Wine: see our guide to Cretan wine and its native grapes.
Soumada: a sweet almond drink from Neapoli in Lasithi, served cold at weddings and celebrations.
Aloe: aloe vera grows well in Crete, and local producers make aloe juice and cosmetics.