Copper, anise, sea

The Distillers Union of Kavala S.A. (EN.PO.KA.) was founded in 1969, when 18 small distillers of Kavala decided to pool their knowledge and experience in a single company. Most were descendants of refugee distilling families who had reached the town in 1922, bringing with them the recipes and the craft of distillation from Asia Minor. That craft, handed down from generation to generation in the small workshops of Kavala, became the foundation of the new company.

In 1972 EN.PO.KA. received its operating licence and began production with the retsina “Crystal” and the ouzo “Vero”. Over the years the ouzo evolved, with the addition of star anise and aromatic herbs, into what we know today as Ouzo “Extra”.

The method of production has remained the one the old distillers handed down: the ethyl alcohol is flavoured exclusively by distillation in traditional copper pot stills, as has been done in Kavala since the early twentieth century, and with the town’s own water. These two characteristics give the ouzo its taste, and were officially recognised in 2009, when the Greek state granted EN.PO.KA. the right to use the Geographical Indication “Ouzo of Kavala” (Government Gazette 2065/B/24-9-2009).

More than half a century after its founding, the company remains true to the consistent quality it established from its first day. Ouzo and tsipouro are produced, bottled and sold from its own facilities in Kavala, under a food-safety management system certified to ISO 22000. Its products reach every part of Greece and are exported to Bulgaria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, North Macedonia and Iraq.