Barbayanni | The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails

is one of the leading brands of ouzo, founded in 1860 by Efstathios Barbayannis (1805–1873) in Plomari, on the Greek island of Lesbos. Barbayannis had worked as a distiller in the Russian city of Odessa and, following time served as a sailor during the Greek-Turkish War, began crafting and selling distilled products. Later a politician and philanthropist, Barbayannis built a company that remains dominant in the Greek spirit industry to this day. Five generations later, the family continues to keep secret the recipes for the firm’s classic Barbayanni Blue Label and its four other expressions of ouzo, other than stating that they are based on raisin spirit, rectified with anise in pot stills.