TSOU.GRisma: Clinking our glasses and drinking is the only thing not included in this site about all things ouzo!

Photography: Antonia Kati, Nikos Ragkousis
Sketch: Tasos Maragkos

What a great celebration our first birthday was! Time: Saturday night, June 17. Place: Ano Syros. Guests: friends from the print and online press from Athens, Thessaloniki, and Syros, together with our tsou.gr team. Our guests of honor: His Excellency Petros Stephanou, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Syros; and beloved musicians Christos Paraskevopoulos, Yannis Kaikis, and Spyros Arkoudis who, a little earlier, had delighted us with a unique concert for ecclesiastical organ and brasswind instruments at St. George’s Cathedral, Ano Syros.

TSOU.GRisma: It’s Greek for “clinking our glasses before drinking”. It’s also the name we chose for the inaugural celebrations surrounding our refurbished website’s launch. The godparent and, to a certain extent, the mastermind behind the name was the “Isidoros Arvanitis Plomari Ouzo Distillery”, our event’s sponsor and invaluable collaborator. The tables were graced with ample quantities of “Plomari”, “Adolo”, and “Matarelli”, three ouzo labels whose fans are spread throughout the globe. They were the perfect match for our carefully selected appetizers, a treat graciously offered to us by “Prekas – Traditional Syros Products”. We enjoyed our refreshing ouzo and its mouthwatering appetizers in the magical open-air grounds of “Syrianon Kafepoteio”, where the view took our breath away.

But that was not all. The evening event included great presentations as well. First, there was a presentation by collector Charis Vekris, the project’s originator, on “One year of tsou.gr”. There was a video clip on the history of the Isidoros Arvanitis Plomari Ouzo Distillery, a presentation of “Ouzo and its Mezé” by Kostas Prekas, owner of the titular shop, and a show comprising classic Greek film excerpts starring our beloved ouzo.

May we all be well, may we all celebrate again next year, all of us together ready to welcome even more guests, so that we can clink our glasses and drink to tsou.gr with the aroma of anise spreading good cheer and fun. See you at TSOU.GRisma 2018!