Hiotissa — Women, Figs, Fire, and the Long Journey of Distillation By David Tsirekas
I was inspired to write this after receiving a sample bottle of Hiotissa from Krystal at The Greek Providore. To be fully transparent, she sent it over for me to play with here in Chicago, and in the simple act of pouring it into a glass, I felt compelled to say thank you to Krystal, for her adventurous spirit in bringing these artisan products first into the Australian market (one of the furthest points from Greece) and now, indirectly, to me and to Hiotissa itself, for exposing me to a spirit I could never otherwise find here. That moment made me want to go deeper, to connect the act of drinking with the long arc of history, culture, and tradition behind it.
Distillation did not begin with alcohol. The first stills we know of Mesopotamian clay vessels dating to around 1200 BCE, were used for perfume and medicine. Babylonian cuneiform describes “redistilling water with aromatics,” proof that the principle of vapour and condensation was born from curiosity about essence, not intoxication. Later, the Alexandrian alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis (3rd–4th c. CE) described an apparatus “in which water is heated, raised up as vapour, and brought down again as a dew,” a clear anticipation of what we now recognise as distillation. But in antiquity, such devices yielded aromatics and medicines. The ancients never drank distilled spirits.
What they did drink and sometimes stumble upon by accident were fermented beverages. Figs, one of humanity’s first domesticated crops, were cultivated at Gilgal I near Jericho as early as 9,000 BCE. Their natural sugars and wild yeasts made them perfect for spontaneous fermentation. Ancient people certainly experienced mild alcoholic drinks made from figs: rustic brews of dried fruit soaked in water, bubbling in clay jars until they produced a sweet, low-alcohol liquor. Pliny the Elder writes in Natural History that “Sycites is a preparation from figs… Rhoites, from pomegranates,” listing them among rustic wines. Even earlier, the Linear B tablets of Mycenaean scribes carried the word su-za (“fig tree”) and even a fig ideogram, a Bronze Age acknowledgement of their importance. These were the precursors to distillation the first steps into the mystery of transformation.
The true leap to distilled alcohol came later, in the Islamic Golden Age, where scholars like al-Kindi in the 9th century describe the distillation of wine “not to make a drink but to use the pure alcohol as a disinfectant and solvent.” By the 13th century, European scholars such as Taddeo Alderotti spoke of aqua vitae, “burning water” produced by repeated distillations of wine, a liquid prized for its medicinal powers. Monasteries, especially within Orthodoxy, embraced distillation precisely for this reason. They were hospitals as much as cloisters: the Pantokrator Monastery in Constantinople was founded not only for worship but as a medical and philanthropic centre. Alcohol was preserved as antiseptic, solvent, and medicine an extension of Christian duty to care for the sick. From those contexts, drinking spirits slowly entered daily life. By the 14th century Athonite monks were making tsipouro; Crete refined tsikoudia; Lesvos and Chios later gave birth to ouzo. The line of descent is clear: fermentation in antiquity, distillation as medicine in Byzantium and Islam, and drinking spirits as culture in the modern age.
This is the ground from which Hiotissa grows. Figs dried under the Aegean sun are fermented into a rustic wine and slowly distilled in discontinuous copper stills a slow, manual method where the still must be charged, heated, emptied, and recharged, allowing precise cuts and control. What emerges is clear yet layered: honeyed fig, earthy carob, sun-dried tomato, cardamom, almond, and a mineral-saline finish that tastes of island air.
But what makes Hiotissa truly compelling is not just its technique or flavour, but what it chooses to honour. It's very name means “a woman of Chios.” Chios has long been defined by women: keepers of the mastic groves, artists of the intricate mastorika embroidery of Pyrgi, carriers of culture when men were absent at sea, guardians of grace and continuity in the face of hardship. The bottle, with its curves, embossing, and symbolism, is a tribute to that heritage. It remembers that behind every field, every still, every craft, there were women shaping survival and identity.
To taste Hiotissa here in Chicago a market often cautious, reluctant to adventure is to taste courage. And I would not have had that moment without Krystal’s generosity. Her willingness to go further, to bring Greece to the furthest corners of the world, first in Australia and now to me, is itself an act of distillation taking something vast and ancient and concentrating it into a gift to be shared.
Hiotissa shines neat, but it also invites play. I found myself sketching four drinks, each inspired by what the spirit gives me and why it works.
Aegean Pantry Highball
Hiotissa, soda, olive brine, lemon peel
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Ingredients:
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50 ml Hiotissa
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120 ml chilled soda water
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5 ml olive brine (or 2–3 drops saline solution)
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Lemon peel, expressed
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Method: Build in a tall glass over ice. Add Hiotissa and olive brine, top with soda. Express and drop in lemon peel. Stir gently.
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Why it works: It feels like a sea breeze cutting through the fig’s sweetness. Sodium ions enhance the saline-mineral note already in the spirit, stretching its length and brightness.
Green Almond Smash
Hiotissa, basil, lemon, honey
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Ingredients:
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50 ml Hiotissa
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20 ml fresh lemon juice
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15 ml runny Greek honey
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6–8 fresh basil leaves
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Method: Clap basil leaves, add to shaker. Combine all ingredients with ice, shake hard. Fine strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a basil crown.
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Why it works: It feels like painting in green tones, bright and herbal. Basil’s eugenol compounds mirror the spirit’s almond-cardamom notes, while honey softens fig tannins, a pairing known since antiquity.
Fig Leaf & Tonic
Hiotissa, dry tonic, orange peel
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Ingredients:
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45 ml Hiotissa
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120 ml dry tonic water (not sweetened)
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Orange peel, expressed
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Method: Build in a balloon glass over a large clear ice cube. Pour Hiotissa, top with tonic, stir once. Express orange peel over the top and drop in. If available, clip a fig leaf to the rim.
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Why it works: It feels perfumed and airy, with orange oils catching the carob and cardamom notes. The wide glass allows the layered aromatics to bloom as intended.
Tomato & Fig Capri
Hiotissa, tomato water, vermouth, soda, black pepper
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Ingredients:
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40 ml Hiotissa
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40 ml clear tomato water (or strained tomato juice)
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15 ml dry vermouth
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60–80 ml soda water
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Crack of black pepper
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Method: In a wine glass with ice, add Hiotissa, tomato water, and vermouth. Top with soda. Crack black pepper over the drink. Garnish with basil or lemon wheel.
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Why it works: It feels like a sunlit lunch in a garden. Tomato’s glutamates dovetail with Hiotissa’s sun-dried tomato and saline notes, while vermouth reinforces its thyme-rosemary herbal undertone.
These drinks are more than recipes; they are invitations. To sip Hiotissa is to honour women who carried their island’s culture, to remember figs as one of humanity’s first fruits, to place monasteries and their stills into the story of healing, and to recognise that while the ancients never drank distilled alcohol, they gave us the fermentation and imagination that made it inevitable.
Hiotissa, distilled from dried figs in copper, is not just a drink. It is distilled history of women, of fruit, of fire, and of the courage to carry them across seas.
Thank You
A heartfelt thank you to David Tsirekas for his beautiful piece on Hiotissa — Women, Figs, Fire, and the Long Journey of Distillation. We are honoured that you love it and that you chose to share its story with such passion and depth.
For those who don’t know, David is one of Australia’s most celebrated Greek chefs, now bringing his culinary artistry to Chicago. His love for storytelling, food, and heritage continues to inspire, and we are proud to have his voice connected to the journey of Hiotissa here in Australia.
