Ideas that you can bring from Cyprus to yourself and as a gift. Souvenir prices range from olives and cheeses to carob syrup and honey. Tourist tips on where to make good purchases.
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Cyprus olives
More than 2 million olive trees grow on the island. Some of them are real long-livers and live up to 2.5 thousand years. About 80% of all trees are cultivated, therefore an olive branch flaunts on the coat of arms of Cyprus.
Olives of excellent quality are sold in shops and markets. They are superior in quality to the most famous Greek and Spanish varieties. You will immediately distinguish Cypriot olives from those in our stores. They have a special delicate texture and great taste.
Green olives are harvested slightly unripe and sold pitted. The black ones are fully ripe and are used for food and butter making. Tourists bring fresh, pickled and salted olives from Cyprus. According to reviews, dried and fruits stuffed with anchovies, eggplants and nuts are good.
Price... 1 kg of fresh olives costs 2-6 euros, and canned olives - 2-3 euros.
Advice... Take olives on the road in a vacuum or in cans.
Olive oil
What do tourists bring from Cyprus? Every second person returns home with a bottle of excellent olive oil. It is a wonderful product for cooking and home cosmetics. In terms of oil production, Cypriots are ranked 19-20 in the world. This is not bad at all, considering that the island is home to just over 1 million people.
Price... At the oil mill, 1 liter of oil is sold for 5 euros, and in stores for 7 euros.
Advice... Buy extra virgin olive oil labeled virgin oil or extra virgin oil... This means that no chemical additives were used in the production of the oil, and it was squeezed out exclusively by a physical method.
Cheeses
Cypriots are big cheese lovers. One of the most famous - halloumi... Pickled cheese made from goat, sheep or cow's milk has a salty taste and is similar to sheep's cheese. Delicious cheese is fried, added to soups, salads and eaten neat.
According to reviews, cheese is very good anari... There are two types of soft anari in stores - salted and sweet αναλατη. A seasoned solid anari, which is called ξερη, is more suitable for the road.
Price... In the store, a package of halloumi costs 2-10 euros, 1 kg in the market - 13-17 euros. Anari cheese is not that expensive. For 1 kg you need to pay 4-7 euros.
Advice... If halloumi contains more cow's milk, it costs less. How to find out the composition? According to the label. The most expensive halloumi is made from goat's milk. It says on its packaging goat milk... Slightly cheaper sheep's milk cheese marked sheep milk... The price of cheese made from goat and sheep milk is even lower - goat and sheep milk... The cheapest is pure cow's milk cheese cow's milk.
Carob products
What to bring from Cyprus for a sweet tooth? Carob products will be a real discovery. An excellent sugar substitute is produced on the island - carob syrup... Ice cream, pancakes, soft cheese and pancakes are poured over them. Carob syrup is caffeine-free and non-allergenic.
The stores sell delicious carob cookies, chocolates, drinks and cocoa-like powder. Real diet food! Carob fruits are also in great demand. They are considered a powerful aphrodisiac.
Price... A small bottle of syrup weighing 100 g costs 3-5 euros, a pack of powder 150 g - 2 euros.
Advice... Carob sweets are sold anywhere on the island. Stop by a gift or grocery store and choose what you like!
What to bring from Cyprus: shopping overview
Cypriot sweets
What to bring from Cyprus as a gift for both children and adults? Buy local sweets - they are delicious. A delicacy similar to the Georgian churchkhela is popular on the island, sujukos... Grapes, almonds and walnuts are strung on a string. They are poured with honey and grape juice, which is mixed with flour and then dried in the sun.
Cypriots love grape jelly with nuts paluse and carob marshmallow with nuts pastelacs... This delicacy looks like caramel, and tastes like Georgian gozinaki.
As elsewhere in the Mediterranean, they know how to make sweetness from starch with the addition of juices of various fruits lucumi... Exactly the Turkish delight familiar to us, only very sweet. The islanders make delicious pudding from rose water, cornmeal and ice cream. muhallebi... Boiled quince with lemon and sugar makes kidonopasto... Sweet semolina cupcakes have an unmatched taste shamali.
Price... 100 g of Cypriot sweets cost 1.5-2 euros.
Advice... Sweet treats are sold in any supermarket. For example, in a candy store The nut cracker house, which is located in Limassol.
Honey
According to tourists, delicious honey of rare varieties can be brought from Cyprus. The island has been breeding bees for more than one hundred years, and honey is in honor in Cyprus. Of the rare varieties, orange, lavender, eucalyptus and thyme are popular. Bees collect yellow and orange orange honey from citrus crops - oranges, tangerines and lemons.
Golden lavender honey smells very thin. It is used for food and natural cosmetics. Light brown eucalyptus honey has a piquant aroma. Cypriots treat them for burns, abrasions, bites and other skin injuries.
Rare thyme honey it can be different - from light to dark amber. There are legends about its benefits on the island, so a person who bought such honey considers himself a real lucky one.
Price... A 0.5 liter jar of honey costs from 5.5 euros to 7.5 euros, that is, an average of 12 euros per 1 kg. Floral or polyfloral honey is cheaper, and thyme honey is the most expensive.
Advice... Healthy raw honey in Cyprus is produced under the brand name Trodos... The same enterprise makes delicious jam from quince, watermelon peels, strawberries, hawthorn, eggplant and oranges. According to tourists, good honey is made by a Cypriot company. Kantara.
What else can you bring from Cyprus
- Olive soap, 125 g - 1 euro.
- Herbal soap, 100 g - 6 euros.
- Cypriot coffee, 100 g - 1-2 euros.
- Spices, 50 g - from 1.5 euros.
- Cypriot beer, 0.5 liter can - 1-2 euros.
- Wine Commandaria, 0.7 l - from 4-5 euros.
- Grape moonshine Zivania, 0.5 l - 9-13 euros.
- Anise vodka Ouzo, 1 liter - 13-20 euros.
- Cognac Five kings, 0.7 l - 25-40 euros.
What cannot be exported from Cyprus
Antiques and cultural values are prohibited for export from the country. To smuggle an antique, you need permission from the Ministry of Culture.
Wild plants and animals cannot be exported from Cyprus, as well as things that were made from the skins and bones of rare animals. It is not allowed to take out archaeological finds and objects that were found on the seashore. So it is better not to put shells, corals and stones in your luggage.
There are no restrictions on the export of alcohol, food and tobacco. Of course, if the amount does not exceed reasonable. From personal experience, the transport of 5 liters of olive oil per person at customs does not raise any suspicions.
Travel Tips
- Delicious souvenirs - sweets, drinks, cheeses and olives - look for in any store, supermarket or market. Keep in mind that discounts are only valid at major chain stores. Promotions for the sale of goods at discounted prices in Cyprus are held from March to October and on the New Year.
- If you are buying icons, paintings or jewelry, ask the seller for receipts and a certificate for the goods so that they can be presented at customs.
- Do you want to bring oil from Cyprus? Go to the nearest oil mill. They operate from October to March and sell excellent virgin oil at affordable prices. Obtain oil from shops during the bathing season. It costs a little more, but on the bottle the manufacturer and the variety of fruits from which the oil is squeezed is indicated on the bottle.
- When buying olive oil, read the label carefully. Oil marked olive pomace oil is not suitable for food. It's not very high quality. If the bottle says lampante olive oil, this is a technical grade of oil.
- Light destroys olive oil. Choose dark bottles or cans.
- Among the Cypriot wines, we recommend the reds Othello, Mavrodaphne of Patras and Heritage Maratheftiko, the rosé Couer de Lion and the white Aphrodite. We also recommend Commandaria, a spicy and very sweet wine.
