TEARS OF CHIOS
TODAY YOU WILL EAT TEARS
THIS “candy” was exported from EGYPT, where it is popular, but its key ingredient, mastic, is produced on the GREEK ISLAND of Chios. Known as the “TEARS OF CHIOS,” mastic is a resin that “weeps” from a small tree or shrub, Pistacia lentiscus.
Also called “gum arabic,” MASTIC was used in ancient EGYPTIAN EMBALMING. It was first mentioned by Hippocrates, who prescribed it for digestive problems, colds, and as a breath freshener. The hardened resin has long been used as a chewing gum in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant, which is what you’ve received in your TRICK-OR-TREAT bag.
It’s also an ingredient in Syrian and Turkish desserts, ice cream, and sweets, including TURKISH DELIGHT, and in Greek digestive liqueurs, Mastichato (Mastika). In the West, it’s been used as a binder in candies, watercolor paints, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and as a lick-able adhesive on postage stamps and envelopes.
In the southern region of Chios are the Mastichochoria (“mastic villages”), which together have controlled the production of mastic in the area since the Roman era. THE OTTOMANS, who ruled Chios for centuries, considered mastic worth its weight in gold, which accounts for the peculiar configuration of the 14th– and 15th-century mastic villages. The Mastichochoria are constructed as FORTRESSES, out of sight from the sea (invisible to seafaring robbers) and surrounded by high walls with no street-level doors, making entrance only possible via ladders. Theft of this valuable resource, under the Ottomans, was PUNISHABLE BY DEATH.
But you have nothing to worry about.
CHEWABLE FRANKINCENSE?
THE ARABIC above is what’s printed on the packaging of your candy. The Arabic (transliteration: luban/leban/liban) is usually translated as “frankincense,” that is, the dried sap of the Boswellia sacra, of Africa or Yemen, usually sold as incense. However, as with the resin from Chios, the sap of certain Boswellia tress is also chewed as gum.
I have no expertise in Arabic, but a translator tells me that the “Ingredients” on the package lists, “Frankincense – Wax – Honey – Mastic,” so it seems you may be chewing Frankincense, perhaps flavored with or mixed with mastic. Or “luban” may be a term generalized to mean “resin gum,” which could apply to gum made only of mastic, wax, and honey. The online advertising describes it with strings of words that seem more like SEO tags than an actual description “Natural Honey Mastic Chewing Turkish Gum” without using the word “frankincense.” It also assures potential buyers that the product is “sugar free” despite advertising honey.
I’m not sure how to describe the flavor, but “waxy” comes to mind.