Driving the Paleo Ethniki – the old road from Chania west to Kissamos which avoids all the usual traffic. 

A lovely leisurely drive thru sleepy villages, stopping to admire the stunning views of jagged mountains and precipitous gorges.   

If it was  Spring there would be the riot of colour from the flowers! Fragile red poppies dancing in the breeze, extravagant blue anenomes, and yellow Oxalis daisies carpeting the olive groves.  

Explore the empty harbour outside the town. Walk on the deserted beach. 

Set up picnic in the shade of tamarisks at the foot of the Rodopou pensinsula.  You will be  in a little slice of heaven.  And you can have  Lyra beer, brewed in Kissamos too!

There is nothing quite like eating outside.  To have good food out in the midst of nature, really away from it all, is kinda special. Food always seems to taste better in these situations.

Find our more about living in Crete

There is much more in our blogs. These show things to do in Crete, whether it be walking a gorge, hiking in the foothills of the White Mountains, or taking a drive to see the sites.  Chania is a great town to visit, particularly to go to the street markets, and of course you’ll want to get the benefits of the Cretan diet – be it the yoghurt and cheese, or the olive oil.

This is from the 2020 wine fair in Platanias, near Chania.  Wines of Crete organise this event every year and its a great experience. Its a great place to try out Cretan wines.

At last, a good Cretan sparkling wine!

First of all, at last a really good Cretan dry sparkling wine.  This is from Douloufakis, a winery south of Iraklion, and the current offering is vintage 2016.  Its made by the traditional champagne process, with second fermentation in the bottle in 2017. Its matured in the bottle and was released last year.  It’s a difficult process to get right, but Nikos Douloufakis has done it!

Best red wines in Crete?!

We continue to be impressed by the quality of the red wines from Daskalakis. 

Mother and daughter are key figures here, creating the most splendid Cretan wines, with vintages going back to 2012. 

There is the magnificent Enstikto (means “instinct”). Its a deep red wine, with heady aromas, a blend of the local Kotsifali with the noble Syrah.  This is so deep, full of dark plummy fruit, with a peppery aftertaste that seems to last for ever!

More young talent in the Wines Business

A new find is the Klados winery near Rethymno.  This family run winery was started by Manolis, an oeneologist, in 1997. 10 years later they were able to upgrade to modern wine making technology. 

As Stelios, son of the owner, says, they specialise in the famous Rethymnian Vidiano grape variety. Their “Great Hawk” is a blend of Vidiano and the perfumed floral Muscat grape.  With these two grapes they have produced a beautiful citrus nosed fresh and fruity wine with good body.

A lovely new winery to visit in the Rethymnon area

Another winery close to Rethymnon is Kourkoulou Winery, a new winery started by brother and sister. Meanwhile the vines are looked after by their father. 

This is set near to the Patsos Gorge close to the Amari dam. Including a visit to this winery…

…there is a lovely day drive to the Amari valley taking in the Potamos dam and Taverna Aravanes in Thronos. 

With only 30 minutes on the red grape skins, they’ve produced a delightful delicate orange-pink rosé.  This makes a light and refreshing drink on warm summer evenings.

Their Liatiko will make an easy drinking reds. For red wine lovers its sometimes difficult to find wines which fit with the hot summer days of the Mediterranean.  But with this Liatiko, or perhaps the vintage but still light Kotsifali/Liatiko blend from Daskalakis, satisfy this need.

Perfect cellar conditions help to keep the wine

Being partly underground the basement temperature varies little throughout the year. This makes a basement the ideal place to store your Cretan wines!

With the wonderful scenery all around Crete, and the fine local wines you will be tempted!

More about living in Crete

More about living in Crete

There is much more in our blogs. These show things to do in Crete, whether it be walking a gorge, hiking in the foothills of the White Mountains, or taking a drive to see the sites.  Chania is a great town to visit, particularly to go to the street markets, and of course you’ll want to get the benefits of the Cretan diet – be it the yoghurt and cheese, or the olive oil.

It began with Mythos…

If you are into beer, Crete isn’t the desert that you might at first expect, given the ubiquity of Mythos, and the execrable Amstel. I have to confess that I love beer!  In our early days in Crete I drank Mythos, like everyone else, before discovering that the brewery, although in Greece, is owned by Carlsberg/Heineken.  So what about beers in Crete?

Since writing this many new beers have been started in Crete. Time to come and explore them for yourself!

The most popular beer in Greece, shamefully is Amstel, the famous rat’s piss, (Gunnar’s rating 2.2/5) also from the Heineken stable.  I would yearn for the typical English beers, and got Marstons Pedigree, Ruddles County and Abbot Ale shipped out, latterly also available at the English shop in Kalyves.

Rating beers

A point of divergence, tho I like my own judgement on beers, I do consult with RateBeer, because its packed with beer fanatics from around the world who have tasted just about every brew.  Tastes vary enormously but I like Gunnar, who’s tasted over 10500 beers, and likes what I like!  So you’ll see his ratings with some of these.

So back to the story of beers in Crete and Greece, like the development of fine wines here, beers have followed and there are now several great microbreweries both on Crete, and in other islands in Greece.   

Evia and Septem

But lets start on another island, Evia.  Here is based Septem, who offer an innovative range of beers for each day of the week.

There is IPA, Pilsner, wheat beer, the glorious honey ale for Sunday, a red beer ala Duckstein but with more taste, a Porter and, when God had done his stuff and himself needed a break, “8^th Day”.

This monastery type dark brew at 7.5% is wonderfully rich with dark caramel flavour, most important a marvellous drink to sip (Gunnar has it at 3.8/5, highest amongst his Greek beer tasting).  And then there is the glorious Honey Ale!

Septem was set up by the Panagiotou brothers and began production in 2009.  Sophocles, a chemist and oenologist, instead wanted to bring the science and art of winemaking to beer brewing.  Basically he treats hops as the “grape” of beer, therefore searching the world for those bringing the distinctive aromas and flavours he seeks.

Beers brewed in Crete: Charma

Back in Crete, microbreweries were springing up too, in fact Cretan Brewery, who produce the Charma range, started in 2007.  You’ll find their products, at least the draft lager, available widely in tavernas, bars and cafes in the Chania prefecture.  Based outside Platanias Cretan Brewery has newly redeveloped industrial scale facilities, and they are probably only loosely to be described now as a micro brewery. 

Nevertheless they are very strong on environmental responsibility – they have optimised the process to reduce water consumption, recycle the waste yeast and hops for animal feed.  Solar panels generate heat, and a geothermal system provides cooling.   I have to admit I’m not a fan of the taste, finding it a bit bland and characterless.  But its definitely real Cretan!

Dr Bernd Brink – trailblazer!

The first real Cretan beer was a result of Dr Bernd Brink, a German mathematician based in Scotland.  He came to Crete and, as a German might, wanted to bring to the island above all a genuine German beer.  So the Rethymnian Brewery was set up.  There is a charming detailed history of their travails, both with bureaucracy, manufacturing, the weather, and marketing issues on their website.

These bureaucratic obstacles did not end with the start of the brewery, but continued, forcing them to change the name from the then well known “Rethymnian” to Brinks, after the owner.  I always feel this creates an unfortunate link to the security company of the same name, but maybe its just me.  They make a lager and dark beer, both used to be very expensive, but they now also produce a cheaper one under the label Cretan Kings, a lager – its not wildly exciting, and not easy to find, tho better in 2025 than when I wrote this!

Lyra Beer

On to my favourite of the beers in Crete!  Lyra Beer.  Its still getting easier to find – for example, Pallas bar in Chania on the harbour front, Apostolis Fish Restaurant, Cactus Bar, of Porto Kalyves, and Il Fornou on the beach front at Kalyves. 

A golden ale brewed with best quality hops and Greek malt at the Mediterranean Microbrewery, Kissamos since August 2015 by Haris Maragoudakis .

As Gunnar, my guru on RateBeer, has it: Hazy deep golden with creamy white head. Aroma is malty, cellar, spicy hops. Taste is light sweet grainy,]dry spicy finish. Good light sticky mouthfeel, low carbonation. Refreshing.

White Mountains ale from Lafkas Brewery

Finally, a newcomer, the White Mountains beer from Lafkas Brewery, in the outskirts of Chania.  It all began with a love match between a Greek boy, studying wine making, who visited Belgium to find out about beers, and there met a Belgian girl!  Five years later they ended up living together in Crete and making their own Belgian-Greek beer – a fusion of Belgian know-how with products from the wonderful Greek climate.  Their one beer, a triple Hop Pale Ale was launched in 2017, found only in Crete.

Gunnar’s verdict: Good start.  And he’s tasted over 10,500 beers so he should know!

A Selection of Beers

More about living in Crete

There is much more in our blogs. These show things to do in Crete, whether it be walking a gorge, hiking in the foothills of the White Mountains, or taking a drive to see the sites.  Chania is a great town to visit, particularly to go to the street markets, and of course you’ll want to get the benefits of the Cretan diet – be it the yoghurt and cheese, or the olive oil.

One of the exotic sights to see in Crete is the Prickly Pear (Opuntia Ficus-Indica).  Here they grow to enormous size in the wild, and in late August can have myriad blooms from which develop the fruits.  These can be used in making prickly pear jam.

Using these you can make a great jam, with a very unusual taste. So here is making prickly pear jam:

Watch out for the prickles!

The process is fiddly, we only made it every couple of years!  One of the problems is that the fruits have tiny spikes, thinner than a human hair but very sharp. 

Just brushing your bare skin against them will give you countless tiny prickles which itch and irritate.  Then getting them out is a painstaking job with tweezers and very good eyesight!  

How we pick the fruit

So when we pick them we use gloves and tongs to twist them off the Prickly Pear lobes.

Getting rid of the prickles

Once picked you need to remove these prickles to be able to handle the fruit.  The neat way is to briefly burn them on a gas hob. 

Rotate the fruit so that all the surfaces, and all the prickles are scorched off.  This also gives the flesh an interesting slightly smoky taste. Check out how we do it.

Making the jam

Cut these fruit in half lengthwise and remove the seeds with a teaspoon and put to one side.  Flatten the halves and then gently scrape out the flesh and liquidize. 

Turn to the seeds and work out juices by pressing thru a sieve, pressing the mixture with a spoon or the back of a plate until the remainder is paste like.  Add the extracted juice to the liquidized flesh.  Strain this pulp thru a sieve to remove all seeds.

Mix the pectin with the lemon juice and add the sugar and the ginger.  Add this to the pulp and bring to boil in a big heavy bottomed jam saucepan, stirring regularly. We were lucky to find a Lagostina Italian pan in Synka on offer some time ago – it’s a real gem, with a heavy bottom that spreads the heat without burning.   We also add the lemon skins from squeezed juice too.  Bring to a rapid boil for 3 minutes, with a jam thermometer you should get to 105 deg Celsius.

Testing the set

To test for set, you need to rapidly cool the jam and see how thick it gets.  We do this by chilling plates in the freezer and pouring a teaspoon of jam onto one.  After 2-3 mins it should be set.  You can also use dessert spoons chilled in iced water – add the jam to one and lay on ice for a couple of minutes.

Pour into clean glass jars heated in the oven to 100 deg for a few minutes.  Its good to have a wide necked funnel to get the mixture in, and if you’ve got jam-jar lids with a dimple in the middle, you can check that they have sealed if the dimple inverts when it cools.  But it keeps pretty well anyway, and will be best after at least a few months maturing. So that’s enough to get you making prickly pear jam!

In order to help you, here is our recipe.

More about living in Crete

There is much more in our blogs. These show things to do in Crete, whether it be walking a gorge, hiking in the foothills of the White Mountains, or taking a drive to see the sites.  Chania is a great town to visit, particularly to go to the street markets, and of course you’ll want to get the benefits of the Cretan diet – be it the yoghurt and cheese, or the olive oil.

Lets start on the Cretan diet, not with olive oil – about which we’ve already written a blog (part I!). But with milk, sheep and goats milk, because it’s the basis of the wonderful yoghurt and Graviera. Its the king of Cretan cheeses.

Strained Greek yoghurt

Outside of Greece you’ll find “Greek yoghurt” – this is normally the strained cows milk yoghurt.  Its beautifully smooth and creamy, so you can use it to top waffles, as the creamy layers in this fruit trifle. 

Its normally 10% fat, but we find the 2% is still just beautiful and cuts down on the calories!

Mountain yoghurt

However the real Cretan yoghurt is that made in the mountains.  Its got a much more tangy nature, is thicker and full of goodness!   You can sometimes find it in terracotta pots, with a top sheet held on with an elastic band. Increasingly though now they sell them in plastic pots.  It is 8% fat, but this is more easily digested. It is not as high in saturated fats, and it is higher in vitamins and minerals than other yoghurts.

Around the villa are several villages with local dairies which make yoghurt from sheep?s milk – that’s a key element in the Cretan diet. 

One of the dairies, in the village Ramni, is Matsomakis.  We like his yoghurt because it is mild, creamy and stays firm even after you’ve started using it and the skin is cut.  Its not widely available but you can buy it in the local Kalyves shops, and a few outlets in Chania. 

Mastorakis is more widely available, they make it in Fres, another village in the foothills of the White Mountains.  This has a very firm texture and a sharper, more acidic taste.  We prefer Kostakis yoghurt, which also comes from Fres. You can buy it in one of their two stalls in the Agora – the covered market in the centre. At least you could until they decided to revamp it, which is, as of 2025, is a project still ongoing after 3 or 4 years!

Graviera, the king of Cretan cheeses

Similarly they all make Graviera too, often with a blend of sheep and goats milk.  The locals prize Gravieras which have been matured for 6-12 months, tho we find them rather too dry and crumbly.  Our pick is the young “freska” cheese which has beautiful soft pliant texture and a wonderful sharp and moreish taste.  Kostakis make a thyme graviera and Mastorakis a low fat goats milk cheese also.

Apart from the dairies, you can also buy a great yoghurt from the butcher in Armenoi, in the centre of the village by the plain tree and opposite the truly authentic kafenion, but he wont tell us which dairy supplies him!

Myzithra and Anthotiro

Also from sheeps milk comes Myzithra, a soft cheese with flavours varying from creamy mild to sharply tangy, and textures from crumbly to creamy smooth.  Then there is Anthotiro, a soft runny cheese, which the dairies dry with salt to make a solid white cheese which process brings out a  lovely herby flavour.  Not to forget feta, of course!

Cretan Impressions

Here is a showcases of these Cretan tastes, together with a variety of rusks, of olives and of honey -about which more in another post!  And of course, in the Cretan diet no meal would be complete without a little raki, served at -20 deg both to cleanse the palate, and to prove that its 40% and hasn’t been diluted!

More about living in Crete

There is much more in our blogs. These show things to do in Crete, whether it be walking a gorge, hiking in the foothills of the White Mountains, or taking a drive to see the sites.  Chania is a great town to visit, particularly to go to the street markets, or the Santa run and the lights at Christmas

What’s to see on the drive

This drive from the north coast goes to the Creta Carob factory, the old village of Argiroupoli, the ancient tombs of Lappa and the taverna serving fresh trout farmed from rock pools formed by the stream.  then to Lake Kournas, the largest lake in Crete, with the old village of Kournas overlooking it.

In more detail

This is the route  from our first house, Panokosmos, but it would be easy enough to pick up the route from the Ethniki. It takes the fast way on the national road to get to Rethymnon Prefecture.  Subsequently leaving at Pirgos you head thru Episkopi, quite a big village with an interesting church if you have time. 

At Agiroupoli there’s lots to see – a little below the village and a fair walk away are the Roman tombs cut in the rock at Lappa. 

It’s an atmospheric place, the tombs cut into the soft rock, overhanging with moss and shaded by a huge plane tree. 

A circuit of the village takes in the Roman Mosaic floor similarly there are some interesting Venetian doorways and housefronts. 

Visit the carob factory in order to learn about the many culinary uses of the carob, and sample and buy the products. The carob syrup which has an unusual sweet sour taste and can be used in dressings and sauces, as well as drizzled on ice cream! 

Afterwards down near the stream is a taverna, a bit touristy, but a wonderful setting under the trees, with fresh trout farmed from the pools in the stream right by your table!

To Kournas Lake

Back via Kournas village up on the hill and then down to Lake Kournas, the largest lake in Crete.  Again a bit touristy around the near side, you can hire a pedalo for example.  Although that is quite a good way to explore the quieter side.  Or walk around the built up area brings you to a path to the quiet far side.

Drive from Panokosmos: Route on Google Maps

https://goo.gl/maps/HU2RbG3EEmG2

Listing of the places with our comments

https://goo.gl/maps/fYRU7tjaEso

More about living in Crete

There is much more in our blogs. These show things to do in Crete, whether it be walking a gorge, hiking in the foothills of the White Mountains, or taking a drive to see the sites.  Chania is a great town to visit, particularly to go to the street markets, and of course you?ll want to get the benefits of the Cretan diet ? be it the yoghurt and cheese, or the olive oil.

From November thru January, is the time for Cretan olive oil. Nearly every Cretan will be out in their olive groves, harvesting olives! So its a common sight to come round a corner and find nets spread out over the road to catch the olives.  And there’s the very distinctive noise of the rotary harvesting rakes – a sort of scratchy whine – you’ll need to come here to know what we mean!

How to find a good Cretan olive oil

So how do you tell what’s a good olive oil?  Well, clearly you need to taste it!  But you don’t need to see it! All that stuff about its rich green colour (with one exception, see below) is just that, does not mean anything about its taste, at professional tastings blue glasses are used.

Here’s how to go about it:

1. With a little oil in a small glass, firstly warm it in one hand, whilst closing the top of your glass with the other.
2. Then take a sip and aerate it in your mouth by drawing air in between your lips – may need practise to avoid spilling it down your front!  This should concentrate the aroma.
3. Note the tastes, then swallow
4. After swallowing a spicy burn should develop in your throat – its like the finish in a wine.  After a few seconds this should die away again. But if it lasts longer this is a sign of poor quality.

The colour of olive oil

The only instance when you should be careful of colour is if you see a yellow Cretan olive oil.  This is a sign of degradation through exposure to light.  A well-kept Cretan oil should be a deep green.  Try to keep olive oil in dark glass bottles out of sunlight at an even temperature not over 20 deg. Plastic bottles may contaminate the oil with plasticizers, and though metal tins are fine whilst unopened, afterwards the metals may react with the oil.

Our Tasting Notes of Cretan olive oils

Recently we visited Terra Creta, a producer with one of the most modern olive mills in Europe, based in Kolymbari, Crete.  They have made this charming video which shows you how central the olive is to Cretan culture and life.  We tried several of their Cretan olive oils, guided by Costas, the plant manager, and here are our impressions.

• PDO Kolymbari Extra Virgin Olive Oil: grassy nose; mild taste, smooth on the palate and with very little spiciness.
• Terra Creta Biological Olive Oil: stronger grassy nose and stronger grassy taste; much spicier aftertaste this is caused by the polyphenols.
• Terra Creta 0.2% acidity Olive Oil: smoother texture; milder taste; spiciness develops slowly in the mouth and then dies away.  Terra Creta make this limited production from olives harvested in November, at the beginning of the harvest season.  At this time the olives yield less oil, but of a higher quality.

Acidity and first cold pressing

Cretans call the olive trees “the children of the earth” –  its in every Cretan’s blood and soul, passed from one generation to the other.  Cretan olive oil consists of oil from the Koroneiki olive, with a small proportion of Tsunati.  Cretans typically eat the Tsunati, which has a fruitier taste but higher acidity.  This enables Cretan olive oils to be anything up to a medium fruitiness and spiciness.

You may have heard of “first cold pressing” being the best olive oil.  Producers press the olives at a maximum temperature of 27 degrees in order to preserve vitamins, (mainly E and A).  After this pressing about 10% of the oil remains in the olive pulp. 

After this pressing about 10% of the oil remains in the olive pulp. 

Pomice and Extra Virgin olive oil

Pomice producers typically extract this by a different process using heat and chemicals, This destroys much of the benefits, but yields a very neutral and low acidity oil.  Therefore if an olive oil has low acidity it is not necessarily good. But it is important for first cold pressed olive oil. 

To be “Extra Virgin” it must have acidity less than 0.8% whilst “Virgin” olive oil can be up to 2% acidity. Cretan Olive oil contains approximately 200 polyphenols which give the oil its spiciness and bitterness, too much can affect taste;  therefore it is necessary to get the amount right!  Many of these phenols have not yet been fully explored.

The age of olive trees

And olives age well!  One of the 10 oldest olive trees in the world is in VOUVES in Crete. It was pretty old even when Christ was born, and may even have been around when the Minoans were inhabiting their palaces.

ts important that the olives are processed as soon after picking as possible. Cretans have many olive mills, almost literally dotted around each village.  Each services their local area, and even larger producers like Terra Creta only take olives from their region. There are any number of olive oil mills near to the villa, but Melissakis at Tsivaras, has modern facilities with high standards of cleanliness and quality.

Terra Creta in Kolymbari, is less than an hour away from Kalives but in Chiliomoudou at the Taverna Lemonia is this ancient stone olive press, which can still be powered by donkey – you can sometimes hear its braying from the village!

More about living in Crete

There is much more in our blogs. These show things to do in Crete, whether it be walking a gorge, hiking in the foothills of the White Mountains, or taking a drive to see the sites.  Chania is a great town to visit, particularly to go to the street markets, and of course apart from the olive oil you’ll want to get the benefits of the Cretan diet – be it the yoghurt and cheese.