THE COMPANY

ABOUT US

The family-run Melissa, based in Potos, Thassos, specializes in the production and marketing of traditional products. The philosophy and goal of the company is to offer high quality products to consumers and especially to promote local Thassian products such as honey and oil products produced by the company itself with care and respect for nature.

BEEKEEPING IN THASSOS

Thassos is world famous for its pine-scented honey products

Honeymaking is common on many Greek islands but it holds a special place on Thassos thanks to the honey-bearing liquid of the pine trees that carpet the hillsides and to the island flowers of arbutus, myrtle, wicker as well as its many chestnut trees. The island is famous for both the quality and quantity of its organically made honey.

The island lies in the north-east Aegean, close to the Greek mainland, where it tends not to be affected by the brisk summer meltemi winds that sweep across many of the more southern islands. This makes the Thassos climate more gentle in the summer and allows the busy bees to work on honey collection all day long.

BEEKEEPING IN THASSOS

Beekeepers tend to their beehives all year round but the honeycombs are usually extracted in the warm, sunny days of June when the first spring flush of wildflowers is over and again in late August. Scores of bee colonies are moved into the hillside from August onwards so that the bees can collect the honeydew from the insect Marchallina helenica which lives on the pines.