Taste your way around Syros: The products, people and places behind the island’s flavours

Most visitors arrive in Syros already knowing about loukoumi. The island’s best-known sweet is everywhere in Hermoupolis, especially around the port, and taking a box home has become something of a tradition.

But the food of Syros tells a much bigger story.

Local cheese is made only a few kilometres from town. Vineyards are hidden among villages and dry-stone walls. Thyme honey comes from the south of the island, while capers and wild fennel grow across its hillsides. In Vari, even local figs have found their way into a modern distillery.

There is an urban side to this story too. In 1828, while Hermoupolis was still a young and rapidly growing city, the first Greek cookbook was printed here: a translation of an Italian book introducing its readers to European recipes and cooking techniques.

You can taste many of the island’s products without leaving Hermoupolis. But to understand where they come from, you need to explore a little further.

The obvious place to begin is the market of Hermoupolis, particularly around Chiou Street and the narrow streets behind the waterfront.

This is where many of the island’s flavours come together: local cheeses, cured meats, capers, herbs, sun-dried tomatoes and, of course, the sweets for which Syros is famous.

Loukoumi has been produced in Hermoupolis since the early decades of the 19th century, when refugees arriving from Chios and other parts of the eastern Aegean brought their confectionery traditions with them. What began as a craft developed into an important local industry and eventually became part of the identity of the city itself.

Alongside it is halvadopita, soft nougat with almonds pressed between thin wafers. The two have been made by generations of Syros confectioners and remain the classic sweets to take home from the island.

But do not stop at the sweet shops.

Look for louza, thinly sliced cured pork prepared with wine and spices, and the island’s pork sausages flavoured with fennel or garlic. Try kaparosalata, made with capers, or maidanosalata, based on parsley, when you find them among the meze.

Hermoupolis is the introduction. From here, the flavours start leading you around the island.

One name you should remember before leaving Syros is San Michali.

This hard PDO cheese is made from cow’s milk on the island and develops a rich, increasingly piquant flavour as it matures. You will find it in shops and restaurants in Hermoupolis, but its production takes you inland.

In Vissas, Tyrosyra produces San Michali and other cheeses, while Manna is home to the Zozefinos cheese dairy. Both belong to the small-scale production that still connects modern Syros with its agricultural life.

These areas are easy to pass through on the way to the beaches. Slow down and the scenery changes: fields, farm buildings and cultivated land replace the dense streets of Hermoupolis.

The San Michali you tasted in town now has a place behind it.

Wine provides another route into the island.

Syros has a small but interesting wine scene, with producers working with Cycladic grape varieties including Serifiotiko, Monemvasia, Mandilaria and Fokiano. Several wineries welcome visitors for tastings and vineyard experiences.

In Parakopi, Parakopois Winery was established in 2018 by third-generation farmer and winemaker Petros Roussos. Serifiotiko plays a central role in its wines, and visits and tastings are available by arrangement.

Further south, Chroussa is home to Ousyra Winery, where visitors can taste wines among the vines. Other vineyards and wineries are scattered across the island, including in the rugged landscape of northern Syros.

There is no single “wine village” to visit. That is part of the appeal: following Syros wine takes you through different landscapes and villages along the way.

These are small producers rather than large visitor attractions, so booking ahead is always the better option.

Continue towards the western and southern villages and you encounter different local products.

In Finikas, Organic Beez produces organic Syros thyme honey, while Meli Syros is another local honey producer based in Poseidonia. Beekeeping is also practised in other parts of the island, continuing a long-standing local tradition.

Honey is easy to overlook beside products as famous as loukoumi and San Michali, but it is closely connected to the island’s natural landscape. Thyme thrives on the dry hillsides of Syros and gives the local honey much of its distinctive character.

Further south, Megas Gialos is associated with locally produced olive oil through Dellagrazia Oil.

Not every producer welcomes visitors, so check before making a special trip. Even without a formal visit, driving through this part of Syros reveals the landscape behind the products: olive trees, aromatic herbs, dry fields and low Cycladic vegetation.

In Vari, there is a more direct opportunity to meet a local producer.

Makryonitis Syros Distillery welcomes visitors to taste its products and learn about the production process. Alongside tsipouro made from Cycladic grape varieties, ouzo and liqueurs, one bottle is particularly interesting: a spirit made from fresh Syros figs.

The distillery uses local fig varieties picked by hand in August and, in 2020, became the first distillery in Greece to produce and bottle a spirit made from fresh figs.

Figs also appear in one of the island’s older food traditions: pastelaries, made from dried figs with walnuts, sesame and cinnamon.

It is a good example of the same local ingredient appearing in two very different forms: one rooted in an old method of preserving seasonal food, the other created by a contemporary Syros producer.

Head towards Apano Meria and Syros becomes rougher, quieter and much less developed.

Dry-stone walls divide the hills, while wild plants grow across a landscape shaped by wind, rock and relatively little water. Two ingredients that repeatedly appear in Syros cooking feel particularly at home here: capers and fennel.

Capers grow naturally around the island and are used in dishes such as kaparosalata. Wild fennel appears in everything from local sausages to marathopita, a thin fennel pie.

Northern Syros also has a long connection with viticulture. Old vineyard terraces can still be seen in the hills, while Chatzakis Winery in San Michalis continues the area’s wine tradition today.

Here, some of the ingredients you have already encountered on a plate are simply growing around you.

There is no need for a checklist of twenty “must-eat” foods.

Start with loukoumi and halvadopita in Hermoupolis. Try San Michali with louza or fennel sausage. Look for kaparosalata, maidanosalata and marathopita on local menus, and try pastelaries if you come across them.

Then go a little further: taste a Syros wine, try thyme honey or a local spirit, and take home capers, herbs or olive oil.

Not every traditional recipe appears regularly on restaurant menus, and not every producer is open to visitors. Some are working farms, dairies and small production units rather than places designed for tourism. When a visit is not explicitly offered, contact the producer first.

You do not need to turn your holiday into a dedicated food tour.

Start in Hermoupolis, then let the rest fit naturally into the places you already want to explore. Drive inland through Manna and Vissas. Combine Parakopi or Chroussa with a winery visit. Head south through Finikas, Megas Gialos and Vari. On another day, follow the road north into Apano Meria.

With a car, a tasting can become part of a day exploring the villages, a producer can be a stop between the beach and dinner, and the journey itself becomes part of discovering the food of Syros.

You do not have to visit every producer. Just leave Hermoupolis at least once and follow some of the flavours back into the island.

Because in Syros, the island itself is part of the recipe.