There is a particular kind of hospitality that Greeks have practised for three thousand years: the instinct to set a small table of good things in front of a guest and say, simply, sit, taste, stay a while. The Hellenic Table Collection is built on that instinct. It gathers five foods that belong to five different corners of Greek life — the aperitif poured at sunset, the honey stirred into morning yogurt, the oil drizzled over everything that matters, the olives set beside a glass of wine, the paste spread on warm bread before a meal begins — and settles them into a single glossy, cherry-lacquered chest with a gold clasp. It is not a hamper of unrelated nice things. It is a miniature, portable version of a Greek table, the kind that appears whenever something is being celebrated, and it travels well because every item inside has been chosen for the same reason: it tells the truth about where it comes from.
Open the lid and the first thing you notice is colour — the deep cobalt of a hand-painted evil-eye on glass, the terracotta curve of an oil bottle, the amber glow of pine honey held up to the light. This is a gift designed to be unwrapped slowly, product by product, each one earning its own moment before the next is lifted out.
Inside the Chest
- 1 x Ouzo in a hand-decorated evil-eye bottle. Greece’s iconic aperitif, in a bottle carrying the mati, the traditional symbol of protection and good fortune.
- 1 x Greek Pine Honey. Rich, amber and less sweet than blossom honeys, gathered from Greek pine forests.
- 1 x Nafsika Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 100 ml. Presented in a sculpted terracotta-toned bottle.
- 1 x Navarino Icons Kalamata Olives, 30 g. Pitted, with extra virgin olive oil, from the gourmet collection of Costa Navarino.
- 1 x Navarino Icons Kalamon Olive Paste, 30 g. Made with 91% Kalamon olives, extra virgin olive oil and Greek herbs.
The Aperitif: Ouzo Under the Watch of the Mati
Every Greek evening worth remembering begins with ouzo. Clear in the bottle, it turns a cloudy, milky white the moment water or ice meets the anise inside — a small piece of theatre that happens at the table, in front of your guests, every single time. Here it arrives in a bottle hand-decorated with the mati, the blue-and-white eye that has watched over Greek homes, boats, doorways and now, bottles, for generations. It is given to protect the thing it is painted on and to wish good fortune on whoever receives it, which makes it a rare kind of object: a drink and a talisman in the same breath. Pour it slowly over ice as an aperitif, let the louche happen in the glass, and serve it the way it is meant to be served — alongside something salty, because ouzo was never designed to be drunk alone.
The Honey: Pine Forests, Not Flower Fields
Most people picture honey coming from meadows of wildflowers. Greek pine honey tells a different, stranger story. It begins not in a blossom but in the sap of pine trees, collected by bees and transformed into something darker, denser and markedly less sweet than ordinary honey — closer to caramel and resin than to orange blossom. It is one of Greece's most distinctive honeys, prized by those who find floral honey one-dimensional. Spoon it over thick Greek yogurt, stir it into strong coffee, or let it sit on the table beside the olive paste and bread, where its slow-burning sweetness balances the saltier things around it.
The Oil: Corfu's Noble Lianolia
Nafsika Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil captures the noble taste of Corfu, crafted exclusively from early-harvested Lianolia olives and cold-extracted within hours of picking for a balanced, fruity profile. Lianolia is Corfu's own native olive, grown nowhere else in quite the same way, and picking it early rather than letting it ripen fully is what gives this oil its brightness. It arrives in a 500ml terracotta-style ceramic bottle with a wooden cap and decorative ancient coin motifs in its full-size form; here, in the chest, it comes as a 100 ml sculpted terracotta-toned bottle — small enough to sit comfortably among the other treasures, generous enough for several meals of good bread, ripe tomatoes, or a simple fish fillet finished at the table rather than in the pan.
The Olives: Centuries-Old Trees by the Sea
Costa Navarino sits on the Messinian coast of the Peloponnese, a region that has been growing olives for so long that archaeologists have found the word "olive" inscribed on clay tablets nearby dating back to 1300 BC — among the earliest written evidence of olive cultivation anywhere in Greece. The Kalamon olives in this chest come from that same ground. Carefully gathered by hand from centuries-old trees grown in the seaside groves of Costa Navarino, the celebrated Kalamon variety olives are ripened by the sun, tempered by the salt air, traditionally cured in natural brine and packed in extra virgin olive oil, giving them a delightfully rich and tangy flavour. Eat them straight from the jar beside the ouzo, or scatter them over a plate of feta and tomato — they were made for exactly that kind of unfussy, generous table.
The Olive Paste: Messinia, Spread on Bread
Where the whole olives are for eating as they are, the Kalamon olive paste is for spreading — a thick, deeply savoury purée made from 91% Kalamon olives blended with extra virgin olive oil and Greek herbs. It follows the same Messinian tradition as the olives beside it, condensing that same sun-ripened, salt-air flavour into something you can spoon onto warm bread, stir through pasta, or offer as the first small taste of the meal, the thing guests reach for before anyone has even sat down properly.
A Chest Worth Keeping
All five arrive together inside a glossy, cherry-lacquered wooden box with a folding lid and a metal clasp, measuring 20 x 15 x 6 cm — compact enough to travel in hand luggage, substantial enough to sit proudly on a shelf long after the last olive has been eaten. This is packaging designed to be reused: a jewellery box, a keepsake chest, a place to store letters or small treasures, so the gift continues long after the food inside it is gone.
The chest can be personalised with a ribbon and an accompanying gift card carrying your own message, and corporate branding is available for clients sending the collection as a considered business gift. Personalisation takes one additional day to prepare, so it is worth allowing a little extra time when a specific date matters. Because personalised items are made to order, they cannot be returned once customised.
Why This Belongs Together
A wedding, a housewarming, a corporate thank-you, a birthday, a holiday table, a host gift carried aboard a yacht for the weekend — the occasions change, but the gesture stays the same: here is a small, complete taste of Greece, chosen with care rather than assembled in a hurry. The pieces inside were never meant to be eaten in isolation. Pour the ouzo, set out the olives and paste with warm bread, drizzle the oil over whatever is on the plate, and finish with a spoon of pine honey over yogurt or strong coffee — and you have, without any extra effort, recreated the rhythm of a Greek table in someone else's home.
It is worth noting, gently, that this is a gift to be shared with care: it contains alcohol, so it should go to recipients old enough to enjoy it, and the pine honey, like all honey, is not suitable for infants under twelve months. Those with specific sensitivities should check the individual labels on the ouzo and olive products before serving. Everything else is simply an invitation — to pour, to spread, to taste, and to pass the chest along the table.
