The Greek liquor, Ouzo, blends well with fruit. TIM BOYLE/GETTY IMAGES

Opa! Greek treat even better with fruit

Date published: 7/23/2008

ASK MOST people what happens when you drink ouzo, and they'll tell you it sneaks up on you, and before the evening is over, you're compelled to snap your fingers, fling plates and glasses into the fireplace and yell "Opa!"

Oh yeah, and doesn't it taste like licorice?

Well, all of these are true to one extent or another. Ouzo is the national spirit of Greece, made by distilling fruit such as grapes and figs into a clear, powerful, flavorless brandy.

This brandy is then infused with anise seeds and other spices, which is where the licorice taste comes from. Ouzo is then diluted to a manageable strength of about 40 percent alcohol by volume.

The traditional Greek way to serve ouzo is in a small glass with ice, diluted with a little water. Water turns the ouzo milky white because anethole, the essential oil of anise, is soluble in alcohol but not water. When you dilute ouzo, the anethole separates out and turns the clear spirit cloudy.

Though ouzo has been around for centuries, it remains popular in this country mainly in Greek restaurants.

Chef Mike Isabella of popular Zaytinya Restaurant in Washington hopes to widen its appeal. He feels that ouzo's licorice-y taste serves as the perfect foil for the fresh flavors of seasonal fruits, and he makes, by hand, a number of incredibly delicious fruit- and herb-infused varieties of ouzo every few weeks.

Try pomegranate. Or lemon thyme. Or cinnamon, allspice and coriander.

"It's a lot, a lot of experimenting," Isabella says, when asked how he comes up with his wide variety of drinks.

For example, he found that macerating (not what you think it's soaking fruit in alcohol, kids) apples and toasted cardamom pods in ouzo long enough to extract maximum apple flavor "dried out" the natural sweetness of the apples. The solution?

"I add a batch of fresh apples for the final 24 hours, just long enough to bring back that flavor I'm looking for," says Isabella.

I can attest that the clear, golden apple-cardamom ouzo does indeed have a startlingly intense apple flavor, backed by a hint of exotic, almost curry-like spice on the finish.

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Date published: 7/23/2008