Organic Greek lemon balm essential oil – 5 ml fresh lemony-herbal aroma • lemon balm from a family farm in northern Greece • grown in mineral-rich mountain soil

Geusi Vounou – “taste of the mountains” from Grevena, Greece

Geusi Vounou (Greek: Γεύση Βουνού, literally “taste of the mountains”) is a family agricultural business from Vatolakkos near Grevena in northern Greece. The brand is run by Vasilis Karapas, an agronomist from a farming family who planted his first oregano on family land in 2014 while still studying. He later added Greek mountain tea, thyme, sage, saffron, lemon balm, other aromatic plants and pulses.

His grandmother Magdalini was an important influence, teaching the family how to work with local herbs and emphasising the value of traditional plant material. What began as a small student project developed into an agricultural brand combining Greek farming and culinary traditions with modern processing control, packing and export.

Not an anonymous brand. A real farm in Western Macedonia.

• Fields near Vatolakkos at approximately 600 m above sea level – not 680 m, as our website previously stated incorrectly.
• A family farming tradition – Vasilis grew up working in the fields and built on the experience of previous generations.
• Farm-grown herbs are naturally shade-dried to avoid unnecessary loss of aroma during drying.
• Herbs and pulses form the core of the farm’s own production. We use organic claims only for products that are individually certified; the brand’s wider range is not automatically organic.

Greek agricultural press reported in 2023 that the family farm covered approximately 50 hectares, including around 20 hectares of pulses and about 14 hectares of aromatic plants. Cereals used in crop rotation also remained part of the farming system. For the pulses and aromatic crops, the source reported certified organic cultivation.

Why Greek herbs are more than “just another oregano”

With Geusi Vounou, the main difference is not decorative packaging but provenance and the way the raw material is handled. Vasilis describes manual work from planting and weeding through harvesting, drying and packing. With aromatic plants, the aim is to preserve the character of the whole plant with as little processing as possible before packing.

For customers outside Greece, it is also useful to understand what individual Greek ingredients actually are and how they are used. A literal translation of the name is not always enough. Greek mountain tea, dittany, trahanas, kritharaki, hilopitaki and petoura are not marketing terms; they are specific traditional herbs, foods or types of pasta with their own uses.

From herbs and pulses to the wider Greek pantry

Today’s Geusi Vounou range is broader than the farm’s original production. At PraveBio.cz we therefore distinguish between two parts of the assortment:

• The farm-grown core: oregano, thyme, sage, lemon balm, Greek mountain tea, saffron, other herbs and pulses.
• The wider Greek range: traditional pasta, honey, mushrooms and truffle products, flavoured olive oils and other regional foods.

For each product we therefore check origin, ingredients, organic certification, the traditional name and the correct way to use it. The aim is not to sell customers “something Greek” without context, but to explain what makes each ingredient different, how to prepare it and why it has a place in Greek cooking.

Vasilis Karapas: from the first oregano crop to an export brand

Vasilis Karapas was born in Grevena in 1994 and studied agricultural development and farm business management in Thessaloniki. He has worked professionally in agricultural production and packing since 2014. Oregano was the first crop, followed by other aromatic plants and pulses.

Greek media reported in 2024 that more than 70% of production was exported. Exports began in Germany in 2018 and later expanded to other European countries, including the Czech Republic. Geusi Vounou was not created as a souvenir brand for tourists; it grew out of a working agricultural business and now sells its products across several markets.

Geusi Vounou at PraveBio.cz

PraveBio distributes Geusi Vounou in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. As with Ceylon Kokonati, we explain the differences between individual products, their Greek names, how they are used in the kitchen and the genuine USPs of each ingredient. Organic claims are used only where they apply to the specific certified product.