Canela is cinnamon in Greek; and “the cinnamon is like Venus, the most beautiful woman on Earth, is as bittersweet as all women”, says a character of the film “A Pinch of Pepper”. Besides, “it warms hearts and it unites”, but the Cretan cinnamon drink cools rather than warms: its main ingredient is snow; and not just a snow but one from the Psiloritis mountain!

The article on the highest point of Crete: About climbing the snowy Psiloritis mountain and its highest peak – Timios Stavros (the Holy Cross):

 https://thenewgreece.com/news/world-snow-day/

In the old days, when refrigerator was not everywhere, the inhabitants of the mountain villages of Crete waited for snow to make canelada. A little water, a bit of cinnamon, some sugar or carob syrup and a lot of snow make this drink pleasantly cool. With a little raki in it, your heart will truly start melting…

Snow lay on the peaks of Psiloritis until the beginning of summer but in the shady ravines even longer.

At the same time, it was impossible to find soft drinks in the shops; and people from mountain villages regularly climbed the mountains to collect snow and saw ice in the gorges for canelada. The most enterprising ones sold drinks on streets of the nearby town. Probably, the ice in the bottles still melted, but the drink remained icy; and the melt water itself had a special snow taste.

Cunning street vendors of canelada enticed customers with mantinades (ditties) about their drinks – “sweet as watermelon”, “cold as Psiloritis”: sales were booming. In 1970s, mass-produced soft drinks ceased to be a luxury; and canelada was forgotten. But, according to an advertisement for cinnamon syrup (Kanelada), the snow drink, which promises “the real freshness of Crete in your glass”, is still being made. The syrup can be found in local supermarkets. However, you’ll have to get the ice from your fridge: it’s a hassle to run to Psiloritis for snow. Although back in 2018, when at one of Cretan markets, Manolis Faragoulitakis, keeping up the family tradition, sold canelada with real snow from Psiloritis, like his grandfather did it at the beginning of the last century.