Tell us a little about your company. When and how you started your business?

Dardoumas is a family business with a tradition in pasta making. Brothers Ioannis and Evangelos Mallios are fourth-generation producers of traditional pasta. Their great grandmother, Maria is the one who basically started this family tradition. Born in 1924, she came from a poor agricultural family. Maria loved cooking and she used to make her own tarhana, both sweet and sour, from scratch, with milk and wheat of her own production. Her daughter Ioanna, along with her granddaughter Maria, who bore her name, were queens of the kitchen. The three of them had such a strong relationship and love for each other, and this basically became the motivation for founding the pasta workshop. Today the two sons of Maria, Ioannis and Evangelos, run the family business which has an aim to preserve and spread these traditional flavors. They have new ideas and produce original combinations of tarhana, which is what their demanding customers ask for: tradition and innovation.

We would like to know about the raw materials used. Where to you purchase? By what criteria to select and how important to you?

Our suppliers are small local producers who give emphasis on the quality and the pure taste of their products. For us it is very important that the eggs, milk and wheat used for our products has not undergone any food processing and that no additives have been used. Thus, we offer the consumers a healthy meal, rich in nutritional value.

What features do you think are the Greek products in the international market?

It is our personal belief that during the past years Greek products have conquered the international market and this is due to their high quality and to the love that Greek producers put into their products. One can feel this love through their taste, the novelty ideas and also their packaging. Delicatessens all over the world have a great selection of Greek products on their shelves and world known chefs with michelin stars create dishes based on these unique Greek products.

What are the main challenges to be faced by a Greek producer today? And on the other, what is it you love about your job?

The biggest challenge a producer has to face nowadays are the financial difficulties in our country. Also it is important to always remember the reason why they became producers in the first place. What we love the most in our work is being creative. We love producing unique and original flavors and when consumers welcome the flavors we create, then this is the greatest satisfaction for us.

What makes your products special? Describe some of them.

Something that makes our products differ from others is the fact that they are hand made, with the use of pure ingredients and of course our innovative flavour combinations. A great example is the sour tarhana with goji berry, which combines tradition and innovation in such a great way. The same tarhanas that has nourished generations of Greeks is combined with this superfood, rich in vitamin C, antioxidants and aminoacids. Among our innovative products there is also the wholemeal tarhanas, the vegetable tarhanas for vegetarians, tarhanas with yogurt and with sourdough for those who have stomach problems. And last but not least, there is the spicy tarhanas, for those who love spicy foods and baby tarhanas for babies from 7 months up.

Why did you choose to enter the box MontlyFlavors; We would like to send a message to our subscribers in Greece and abroad.

We think that MonthlyFlavors is a very fresh idea, we are excited with the concept that each month people can travel to Greece, meet its tastes and flavors without leaving from home and without having to spend time in super markets, delicatessens and e-shops.