Thursday, January 12, 2012

Citron

The town of Halki in Naxos wasn't just home to delicious loucoumades. It was also the home to the Citron (Kitron) distillery museum.


The Kitron distillery in Naxos first opened in 1896. The drink is made from citron trees found on the island. Currently, the alcohol is only found on the island of Naxos and not exported anywhere. (We thought we wouldn't find many items from Greece here in the States but we found a lot, even the cookies, in Astoria. However, we did not find citron yet.) You can get citron in Halki or at the citron bar down in Chora, which we had passed by before. The rich history and the ability to walk through the old distillery attracted us to the museum during our visit.


When we went to the distillery museum, they offered us a free taste of the citron. It's available in green, yellow and clear varieties. The yellow is the strongest, the clear is medium and the green is the lightest and sweetest variety.


Our favorite is the green Citron. The alcohol is still strong (the green was about 30%), but the green one did have a pleasantly sweet taste. We liked it so much that we considered getting a bottle to bring home but thought transport home would be too difficult. Citron is one of those products that you can only get in Naxos. We hope to return one day and will definitely check out the citron bar since we didn't have time to go there during this trip. If you happen to be in Halki, drop by the distillery museum. It's a quick stop and free!

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