In operation for 137 years, the Daremas bakery has written its own chapter in the history of Markopoulo and the wider region of Mesogeia. The bakery’s famous mustokouloura – a grape-must cookie that, following the local Mesogeia tradition, comes out crisp rather than soft – have been its signature product for decades, made using the finest ingredients and an old recipe.

The Daremas story began in 1888, when the present owner’s great-grandfather, Giorgos Daremas, left his hometown of Methana and moved to Markopoulo, where he opened a grocery store in the very same space where the bakery stands today. He married Eleni Merkouri from Markopoulo, a member of a well-known Athenian family, and together they had children and, eventually, grandchildren. One of the latter, Giorgos Daremas the younger, who worked along with his wife Sophia, installed a wood-fired oven in the family grocery store in the late 1940s. They began baking and selling bread, as more and more women began entering the workforce and no longer had time for kneading dough or baking at home.

Two decades later, the couple prepared their first batch of mustokouloura in that same wood-fired oven, using a local recipe and ingredients that included grape must and olive oil from the family’s vineyards and olive groves. At first, the cookies were not meant for sale; they were simply offered as a treat for their customers.

The mustokouloura quickly became a customer favorite. Daremas’ treats soon became sought-after as gifts and treats for friends and relatives. The bakery’s reputation spread, literally by word of mouth, and before long they’d become famous throughout Attica, with daily orders pouring in without pause.

Today, 60 years after that first batch of crisp mustokouloura and with the fourth generation of the family – Kostas Daremas, the son of Giorgos and Sophia – now at the helm of the business, the recipe continues to enchant, winning over yet more loyal fans of all ages. The cookies are baked daily by the thousands, using only the finest ingredients. The packaging has been carefully designed to protect the product from moisture, ensuring that both their flavor and their characteristic crisp texture remain intact.

There are no real secrets – only the philosophy Kostas Daremas inherited from a very young age: honesty and sincerity. “There’s simply no other way,” he says. “From the time I was a child, I was taught to use only the best ingredients. So I just follow the principles I was raised with. It’s a personal commitment – an unfiltered truth.”

The raw materials are carefully selected: grape must from Roditis and Savvatiano, local Mesogeia grape varieties grown in the family vineyards; olive oil from a well-known Cretan producer and from the family’s own roughly 1,000 olive trees; flour from Mylos Kritis; and fresh, aromatic spices.

This year, the Daremas family received the “Evi Voutsina” Award at the Gastronomos Quality Awards. In an emotional moment during the award ceremony, Kostas Daremas paid tribute to his parents and the values they passed down to him: “They taught us principles – respect for our customers, never to lie, to always be honest. They taught us that effort and hard work are a blessing, and that challenges are welcome.”

Kostas also made special mention of the bakery’s long-standing collaborators, many of whom have worked there for decades, as well as the women in the workshop – Mesogeia women of all ages who knead, shape and bake the famous cookies every day with, as he put it “the warmth of their hands.”

“Despite robotics, artificial intelligence and all the other developments of our time, we insist on doing things our way. We don’t follow fashions and trends – we simply present our truth. We cultivate our vineyards and our olive trees, and with the fruits of the Mesogeia land we make our delicacies.”

Today, some of these delicacies travel as far as Northern Europe, reaching selected delicatessens, while others leave the bakery with parents intent on sending them to their children studying abroad.

Another reason to praise the Daremas bakery – beyond its many other excellent homemade treats, including traditional biscuits, cookies, equally famous pasta flora tarts, and outstanding sourdough breads – is its focus on environmental issues.

The oven in the bakery’s new production facility, which began operating about two years ago, is among the most modern of its kind. Built with green technology, it’s designed to have the smallest possible environmental footprint. Outside the workshop, the grounds have been deliberately designed so that rainwater can be absorbed into the subsoil rather than causing flooding. In recognition of this and other efforts, the company holds ISO Environmental Management certification, along with ISO Quality and HACCP certifications.

The family’s continued success is proof that dedication to producing one of Greece’s most traditional foods – mustokouloura – is not incompatible with thoroughly modern ideas. Tradition and modern technology can coexist, when guided by respect for people and for the environment.

This article was previously published in Greek at gastronomos.gr.