Chios Mastiha: Protected at the Source

The mastiha in every bottle of MASTRY is a Product of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) — one of only a handful of ingredients on earth with this designation. It grows exclusively on the southern tip of Chios, Greece, where the Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia tree has been cultivated by the same island families for over three thousand years.

Harvest is a patient, entirely hand-led ritual. Each summer, growers use a small tool called a kentitiri to score shallow grooves into the bark — a technique known as kentima, or "embroidering." The resin weeps slowly, crystallising over fifteen to twenty days into the small translucent tears that give mastiha its name. No machinery, no shortcuts. The ground beneath each tree is dressed with white marble powder so every crystal can be gathered by hand without waste.

The Chios Mastiha Growers Association, founded in 1938, regulates quality, supports island farming families, and ensures that harvesting never outpaces the trees' natural recovery. The practice is recognised on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list and is protected by Greek and EU law. When you open a bottle of MASTRY, you are directly supporting this living tradition and the livelihoods of the growers who keep it alive.

Japanese Spring Water: Responsibility at Every Drop

Japan's relationship with water is centuries deep. We share that reverence. The spring water we use is sourced from a carefully selected Japanese origin, chosen for mineral balance and purity — and for the stewardship practices of the source facility. We draw only within certified sustainable yield limits and require independent water-quality verification before every production run.

Our sourcing partner commits to watershed protection and reforestation activities in the catchment area. We review these commitments annually and will publish source-specific water-stewardship data here as our business scales.

Clean by Design: Zero Sugar, Zero Additives

MASTRY contains two ingredients: mastiha extract and Japanese spring water. Nothing else. No sweeteners, no preservatives, no flavour enhancers, no colouring. This is not a marketing claim — it is the full ingredient list. A short ingredient list is inherently lower-impact: no synthetic chemical processing, no additive supply chains, no consumer-health trade-offs.

Glass First

MASTRY launches exclusively in glass. Glass is infinitely recyclable without loss of quality or purity. It is the only packaging material that can be recovered, re-melted, and reborn without degradation — cycle after cycle. We will never launch a plastic format. As volumes grow we will pursue local glass-collection partnerships and report recycling-rate data on this page.

• 100% glass primary packaging at launch
• No single-use plastic primary containers — ever
• Secondary packaging uses recycled cardboard with vegetable-based inks
• We are evaluating lightweight glass formats to reduce transport-related emissions

Low Waste from the Start

Being a small, pre-launch company is an advantage here: we can build low-waste practices into our operations from day one rather than retrofit them later. Our production runs are sized to minimise overstock. We work with co-packers that operate ISO 14001-aligned environmental management systems. And we are committed to publicly reporting our material waste and carbon footprint once we reach commercial production volumes.

Our Commitments Going Forward

• Publish an annual Sustainability Summary covering water use, packaging recovery rates, and supply-chain audits
• Maintain direct grower relationships with the Chios Mastiha Growers Association and visit the island regularly
• Evaluate third-party environmental certification (B Corp or equivalent) within two years of commercial launch
• Set science-aligned carbon reduction targets in line with a 1.5 °C pathway once supply chain data is available
• Never use greenwashing language — if we have not yet achieved something, we will say so plainly

A Note on Honesty

MASTRY is a pre-launch company. We will not claim certifications we do not yet hold or metrics we have not yet measured. What we can promise is transparency: this page will be updated as our business grows, our data matures, and our commitments are independently verified. If you have questions or would like to discuss sustainability partnerships, please write to us at hello@mastry.jp.