Drinking tsipouro in Volos

This manual is meant for the ‘foreigner,’ the person who comes to Volos to not only drink tsipouro, but to reach―through drinking, eating and talking―a state of collectiveness, of attunement, of harmony, a sweet sensation like floating and the illusion that life is exquisitely simple. There are a number of important factors that will affect the experience, including picking the right place that offers quality draft tsipouro, the seating arrangements, the number of participants, the toasts, the menu, the waitstaff, the topics of discussion, the surroundings, the time of day and mainly, the pace at which the guests drink. Small details can dramatically change the dynamics of a tsipouro-gathering; if something is off, the experience will merely be mediocre instead of the much-desired transcendent experience. What follows is an attempt to describe a traditional gathering—the kind that has been taking place for hundreds of years in the cities of Volos and Nea Ionia. Unlike a photo that freezes a moment in time, the observations that follow take into account that the experience is fluid and always evolving. Accepting what follows as set in stone, or as an unquestionable “truth,” would constitute a misreading.