he making of sweets by using fruits is a singularity of the Greek confectionery.
The Greek sweets made by fruits are a part of the Greek tradition and way of life.
They represent a warm welcome for the visitor to the friendly environment of a Greek home reflecting the spirit of country's hospitality.
In the near past, these sweets were usually homemade according to the art and secrets of each housewife. They were called 'spoon sweets' because the usual serving size was a well-filled teaspoon.
Most of these sweets were prepared at the time of year each fruit matured: apricots, prunes, grapes, quince, bergamot, citrus, wild cherries and figs followed each other from early summer to late autumn.
Other varieties such as pistachio, walnut, fig and bitter orange used fruit that was not yet fully ripe.
Sometimes spoon sweets were made by using vegetables (such as eggplants or tomatoes) or even flower petals.
In our days that homemade sweets are slowly disappearing as the time that a housewife can devote to such time consuming work has been reduced to a minimum.
Luckily however, the art of making sweets by fruits is still alive and well and one can find and taste similar sweets with the homemade ones almost everywhere in Greece due to some quality oriented industries, which devote the time and effort needed to continue the tradition.
oday in Greece they are large state of the art industries producing the same sweets by the same raw materials used for making the spoon sweets.
Similar to the past, the making of each fruit preserve has its own technique and follows specific rules of preparation and execution.
Like in the 'good old days' of the homemade spoon sweets each fruit retains its original shape and color as well as taste and aroma and most of the time the only ingredients are the fruit itself and the sugar.
The fruit preserves produced in Greece are perfect on their own, with a strong Greek coffee and a glass of iced water but are also delightful as a topping for ice cream or yogurt.
The Greek fruit preserves made from the purest and healthiest raw materials are some of the most sought after Greek products and they are exported worldwide.