What to buy on Samothraki: local products and where to find them

Buying something made on the island is the nicest souvenir there is, and it keeps money with the families who make it. Samothraki is a small place, so most local products come from a handful of farms, workshops and kitchens. Here is what to look for and where.

Cheese

The island has one cheese dairy, run by the Papanikolaou family in the village of Makrylies on the road to Xiropotamos. It uses only milk from Samothraki's sheep and goats, which graze on the island's wild herbs, and makes feta, the hard graviera, soft myzithra, formaela for grilling and a cheese named after the village, makrylisio. Most cheeses come vacuum-packed or in brine, so they travel well. Visit the Papanikolaou cheese dairy, where the small shop also sells olive oil, honey, herbs and soaps; you will also meet the island's goat and sheep farmers on our cheese and yoghurt farms page.

Olive oil

Olive groves cover much of the island's south-west, and early in the 20th century several oil presses worked here. The oil is green and fragrant. Ask the owner of the house where you stay or your neighbours: many families sell their own. Bottled island oil is sold in the shops of Chora and Kamariotissa, and the Papanikolaou farm and some tavernas, such as Paradeisos in Profitis Ilias, sell their own too. More on the trees themselves in the olive oil and ancient trees of Samothraki.

Honey, herbs and teas

Thousands of hives work the island's wild flowers, and the honey has a slightly spicy taste. Buy it from beekeepers or from shops and supermarkets in Therma, Chora and Kamariotissa. Island oregano is prized for its sweetness, and you will also find mountain tea, thyme, mint, lemon verbena and pennyroyal, dried for tea.

Spoon sweets and jams

The local speciality is praousti, a small yellow-orange wild plum preserved in syrup and served on a spoon with Greek coffee. Look for it, along with cherry, walnut, fig and pumpkin sweets, at the Angeliki sweet shop in Kamariotissa and at the confectioners in Chora. Two tavernas sell their own: O Vrachos in Profitis Ilias, and I Krimniotissa by the chapel on the rock, which also sells products of the Samothraki Women's Association: jams, liqueurs and traditional pasta such as trachanas and flomari.

Bread and rusks

In Chora, the Antoniou family bakery has baked in the same stone oven since 1853 and is a listed monument. Go early: the bread sells out. Its gourgi, rusks made with a chickpea starter, keep for months and make a salad of tomatoes, feta, oregano and oil feel like the island at home.

Wine, beer and tsipouro

• Melmar Winery near Dafnes makes the Mistiko Monopati and Adyton wines; visit for a tasting.
• Fonias is the island's craft beer, brewed at the edge of Kamariotissa with island water and sold in supermarkets.
• Tsipouro, the Greek grape spirit, is often made by tavernas themselves; ask where you eat.
• Trapeza Café in Chora sells homemade liqueurs, including cherry, mandarin and lemon geranium.

Something to wear

Samothraki's goats are on everything at To Gid', the goat shop in Chora: T-shirts, caps, mugs and goat-milk soaps. The island's few shops also sell soaps from goat and donkey milk and creams made from local plants.