One of the biggest challenges of writing about food and drink is describing a very unfamiliar flavor, like mastiha, a Greek liqueur made with the pungent resin of the evergreen-like mastic tree. “You can’t really grasp the flavor until you’ve had it before. It’s the X-factor. There’s not much to relate it to,’’ says Neil Quigley, beverage director at Porto. It’s at once grassy and bitter and herbaceous and honey-candy sweet. If you had to pinpoint a likeness, gin would do. So Quigley opted for a vague appropriation of the negroni to showcase mastiha’s unique flavor. Salers, a mildly bitter French gentian liqueur, stands in for Campari. The streamlining of herbaceous, sweet, and bitter yields the organized complexity of a fine white wine, making the drink an excellent match for olives, goat cheese, and other fresh yet acidic Mediterranean ingredients used in the kitchen. Liza Weisstuch

GREEK NEGRONI

Makes 1 drink

1 ounce mastiha

1 ounce Salers

1½ ounces dry vermouth

1 dash Bittermens Boston Bittahs

1 large lemon twist (for garnish)

1. Into a chilled rocks glass over ice, add mastiha, Salers, vermouth, and bitters. Stir gently for 10 seconds.

2. Garnish with lemon twist. Adapted from Porto

Liza Weisstuch can be reached at liza.weisstuch@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @livingtheproof.