Today Untraveled would like to present to you our good friends from Filofron. Filofron is an amazing Athens based company which through its e-shop Filofron.com wants to share greek delicacies with the rest of the world. As we ourselves are foodlovers we can really recommend that you visit this site and indulge in Filofron’s tasty products which are of the highest quality. Read our interview with them and you will soon understand why!
1) Your company has a very special name – “Filofron”. What does the word “filofron” mean in greek and how does this reflect your company?
fi-ló-fron (philóphrōn) is an adjective, derived from /phílos, “friend, lover” and /phronéō, “to take care of, mind-set behavior” – properly, the mind-set of love which is quick to show friendly, courteous behavior, the thoughtful one, he who takes care of his loved ones.
We wanted our name to be a Greek word. “Filofron” is a word containing care, emitting hospitality, honoring friendship and human relationships.
Inspiration struck (rather late!) after dear friends of ours’ had left our home on a pretty cold night, after the good company we had, with nice wine and delicacies. That’s it! Caring for loved ones: what we think makes a special host.
2) On your webshop www.filofron.com we can find amazing locally produced foods from all over Greece, all from honeys and marmelades to pastas, chocolates, wines and olive oils. What is the main thing you seek for when you choose a product you wish to sell from your webshop?
We have been wandering through the country for a year and a half, visiting places and choosing not only products to promote, but also people we want to work with. The core of our vision is to promote all the great work that is being made by hard working people who absolutely love what they do, thus resulting in the production of exquisit products! Greek artisanal products and Greek wines, are undergoing a renaissance for quite some time now, and it is about time they won their rightful place all over the world and the credit they deserve.
Our main corcerns when choosing a product are exquisit quality (regarding the raw materials that have been used, good and environmental-friendly agricultural practices etc), striking taste (we test-taste each and every one of our products), charming packaging (aesthetics is key) and bilingual tags (because we want the products to travel!).
3) Your passion, as we have understood, lies in finding amazing local products and sharing them with the world. As known, Greece as a country has a big production of high quality products such as olive oil, fruits and vegetables, super fruits, tea, wines and so much more. What would you say makes greek local produce so special?
Our land is blessed in many ways. Geographically speaking, Greece is in the middle of East and West, and quite South. What more could you want?! We have something like 65% annual sunny weather (we all know what sunshine means to crops), leading to 23°C ini annual average temperature. We have, in most agricultural areas, crystal clear waters (because Greece is quite mountainous too, so the waters come from mountain ranges, into the rivers, pure and clean, mostly).
We are a nation who has always been accustomed to cultivating the land, to feed our families (apart from the last 2-3 decades, that many people left the villages to come to the big cities for the “big opportunities new jobs had to offer”. But now, due to the economic crisis too, many are returning to their homeland, taking over the family business, producing again the wonderful products we have).
We too, as other countries, of course, have a few unique products. The fragrant Masticha of Chios is only grown there (on the island of Chios). Our Olive Oil (all varieties, from various locations) is of splendid quality and taste, known for it’s health benefits. The saffron from the town of Kozani is also unique and much wanted. Our cheeses, of a huge variety, are to die for, so delicious! Most People only know Feta and maybe a couple more. But we have so many and so different between them cheeses, due to the different kinds of milks we use and the tradition of each location. Fig products from Kimi, on the Evia island, are unique and of fine quality. And then, there are so many new,”gourmet-wise modified” products; if you try our Apricot-Lavender marmalade, or our Ginger-Pumpkin Tagliatelle, you won’t believe you’re still on earth! This list could go on for ever, so, i’d better wrap it up!
4) You are now reaching out also to the European market which we think is fantastic as your products are very special. Do you have some words to say to your future foreign customers?
We like travelling, a lot. And of course, we love food. As travelers, we have been collecting local flavours from all over Europe (many times paying overweight for our tightly filled luggage..) Now’s the time for our #GreekFoodTreasures to travel all over the world and be collected, enjoyed and cherished.
You know, smell is very closely connected with memory. And because of the fact that several interactions between smell and taste enhance our perception of the foods we eat, smell and taste are linked with -and somehow create- memories. We have chosen many products based on the criteria mentioned before and on the memories evoked when we tried them. So there are many like us, that want to bring back the feeling too, not just the taste. “That’s Greek thyme honey, like the one we had for breakfast in Greece”, or “This is the Rose wine we had in Greece” .. We want people who visit Greece to feel and enjoy that back home.
And for those who do not know, because they haven’t visited yet, well, a food lover is still a food lover, and always curious and enthusiastic to try new delicacies. So we say, indulge and you shall be rewarded!
Swedish people seem to like Greece a lot. And we also know that the swedish people, more than any other Scandinavian nation, appreciate -and thus consume- good wine. So many Greek wines are of superior quality and of exquisit taste, yet quite unknown to the global wine market. So, especially to our swedish buyers, we say “Try our delicacies along with a glass of fine aromatic Greek wine and “Yámas!” -Skål!-
5) Finally, as you know, Untraveled is trying to show of Greece’s and Athen’s lesser known spots, so we always ask this question. Which are your favorite places in Athens and why!
We love Kolonaki. An old chic district in central Athens, though nowadays it has lost lots of it’s old glory. There are wonderful places to eat (we love “Οικείον” (Ikion), for Greek cuisine or Italian at “Malconi’s” and the best Athenian ice cream at “Despina’s”). Quite a vivid shopping area and just a few minutes walk to the funicular to the beautiful Lycavitos hill, where you can see the whole city and enjoy a city sunset!
Then, there’s the Mets area (at Pangrati), which is a picturesque -so very insta-friendly! – neighbourhood, full of colorful neoclassical buildings, stone stairs and sour orange trees. We love walking through these streets! And, of course, many charming places with great food! And then of course, there’s always Fáliro.. not even a half an hour from the city center, a great walk by the sea, just to chill and enjoy the sea view, without even getting out of the city. We love taking long walks there and enjoying a coffee at hand, staring at our beautiful Greek blue.
Thank you lots for this interview!
