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OΞYMELI / OXYMELI /

ANCIENT GREEK DRINK FROM HONEY AND VINEGAR

Exact preparation according to the recipe of Greek Physician Galen

Consumed diluted with water
Undiluted as a dressing
Non-Alcoholic

Ancient Greeks combined the sweetest natural product, honey, with the sourest one, vinegar, to make oxymeli, a drink in the form of a concentrate.

In Oxymeli, the benefits of the two ingredients—the good juices of honey and the thinning effect of vinegar—are combined and highlighted, while the excessive sweetness and tanginess cancel each other out.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Oxymeli has a pleasant taste, goes well with ice and is best consumed slowly after dinner. It is digestive, quenches thirst and relieves the burning sensation after a heavy meal. Does not contain alcohol.

INSTRUCTIONS OF USE

Consumed diluted with water. For dilution, use a small glass for measuring. Place 1-part oxymeli in a large glass. Dilute with 6-parts water, without ice, or with 5-parts water and a moderate amount of ice or with 4-parts water and plenty of ice. Stir lightly. Add water or oxymeli if you find it strong or light respectively.

You can use it undiluted in cooking or as a dressing on salads and meals, such as lettuce, cabbage, grilled or steamed vegetables, lentils, yogurt, apple slices, etc.

DRINK PREPARATION

Nutritional value per 100gr (74ml)

  • Energy 1323,28 KJ / 316,27 Kcal
  • Fat 0,00 gr
  • Carbohydrates 78,69 gr
  • Of which sugars 68,3 gr
  • Proteins 0,37 gr
  • Salt 0,05 gr

Components

Honey, vinegar , water.
Orange blossom honey, bee foraging area: Argolis. White Vinegar, organically farmed, with no added sulfites, from Corinthian Roditis variety vineyards.
No chemicals or preservatives.
Non-alcoholic.

Preservation

Store in a cool, shady place.
Close tightly after each use.

HISTORICAL REPORTS

Hippocrates mentions oxymeli, along with other common drinks and beverages of the era, such as hydor (water), oinos (wine), melikraton and ptisani (barley porridge), in his work on the nutrition of patients.

«The drink called oxymeli…»

Hippocrates

On regimen in acute diseases

Galen (2nd century AD), was the greatest Physician of antiquity after the “divine” Hippocrates, as he called him. In his works on hygiene and diet, he makes many laudatory references to oxymeli, as he considers it extremely healthy for all people:

“Oxymeli is extremely useful to all ages and natures for ensuring health, as it unblocks all the narrow passages, so that no thick or viscous juice can reside.”

Galen

On good and bad juices

«So, if you examine it with reasoning and testing, you shall see that oxymeli is the most suitable for the thinning diet*.”

(* the diet, with food and drink, which generates thin juices in the body)

Galen

On the thinning diet

“Those that obstruct the liver, are the ones that suit indigestion, and, of those, the finest is oxymeli…”

Galen

Hygiene

PRODUCT USE

MELIKRATON

HONEY SYRUP

Exact preparation according to the recipe of Greek Physician Galen

Easily diluted in warm and cold liquids water, milk, etc.
Undiluted as a dressing

Melikraton, as the word indicates, is kekrameno meli, or honey diluted in water, which today would be called melonero (honeywater).

Ancient Greeks processed raw honey. They mildly boiled it – after adding water or not -, skimmed it and discovered that such a preparation mitigated its property of triggering bowel movements, thus being more easily digested by the human body.

To improve its intake they added water, so that by drinking it, could circulate throughout the body and nourish it even faster. By diluting raw honey with water, they made raw melikraton, while they made boiled melikraton from boiled honey, accordingly.

This product is honey, boiled after adding water and skimmed. You can use it as a dressing on salads, fruit, nuts, waffles, ice cream, yogurt, etc.

You can also dilute it in water to produce melikraton from boiled honey, which is best suited as a tonic before eating, or with any other cold or warm beverage, such as milk, tea, etc.

Nutritional value per 100gr (74ml)

  • Energy 1217,22 kjl / 290,92 Kcal
  • Fat 0,00 gr
  • Carbohydrates 72,38 gr
  • Of which sugars 68,5 gr
  • Proteins 0,35 gr
  • Salt 0,08gr

Components

Honey, water.
Orange blossom honey, bee foraging area: Argolis.
No Chemicals or preservatives

Preservation

Store in a cool, shady place..
Close tightly after each use.

HISTORICAL REPORTS

Hippocrates mentions melikraton, along with other common drinks and beverages of the era, such as hydor (water), oinos (wine), oxymeli and ptisani (barley porridge), in his work on the nutrition of patients.

«Drinking melikraton…»

Hippocrates

On regimen in acute diseases

Galen (2nd century AD), was the greatest Physician of antiquity after the “divine” Hippocrates, as he called him. In his works on hygiene and diet, he makes many laudatory references to honey and melikraton, as to their properties and uses:

“And because it is fine (honey), it must also have something potent, which causes bowel movements. So, when we remove this quality, we make it more suitable for circulation throughout the body and nourishment.”

“If one eats honey on its own, without mixing it with water, it is less nourishing but causes more bowel movements.”

Galen

On the properties of foodstuffs

“So, the bowel… moves significantly… in winter with dry figs and prunes boiled, or simply soaked in honeywater which contains more honey.”

“In the market area, during the third or fourth hour at the latest (around 10 o’clock in the morning), he was eating bread with honey from Attica, most often boiled, and less frequently raw.”
(he describes the daily habits of an 80-year-old contemporary doctor and how he kept healthy)

Galen

Hygiene

PRODUCT USE

Galen

Ancient Greek Physician

Galen was the greatest Physician of antiquity after “the divine” Hippocrates, as he called him. Based on Hippocrates’ theories, such as the “theory of juices”, the “most beautiful theory in medicine”, and believing that “the best doctor is also a philosopher”, Galen systematized and expanded medicine, as well as the ancient world’s broader knowledge, bestowing us with approximately 150 works in 500 books; a precious heritage that remains inexhaustible.

As we studied his works, we discovered useful ancient Greek products of great value, which sparked our desire to recreate them. We selected our beloved oxymeli and melikraton first, strictly adhering to the method of manufacture that Galen himself had recorded in detail.

KRASIS

Mixing, blending from the ancient verb kerannymi, participle kekramenos (as in kekramenosoinos – blended wine).

The word, beyond its practical meaning for the mixing of, primarily, liquids, was used in Philosophy and Medicine for the mixing of the active qualities (warm, cold, dry and wet) and the juices of the human body. In this mixing, the prevalence of a quality (and the respective juice) would give humans their particular attributes and would be used fornaming their krasi (constitution) (e.g.thermikrasi -warm constitution).

Today, we find it in phrases such as: efkratoklima (temperate climate), dinatikrasi (strong constitution), idiosygkrasia (temperament).

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