Whenever Cypriots meet with other people, for work or entertainment, they eat meze and drink wine all together. Anyone who comes to Cyprus has something to say about the Cypriot cuisine.

Cyprus cuisine is closely related to that of Greece , but the island's position at the crossroads of three continents has added exotic tastes that make it particularly varied and delicious. Emphasizing fresh local ingredients, regional herbs and spices, and the light use of natural olive oil, the Cypriot cuizine is essentially Mediterranean in character.

Cypriots know how to cook their food and enjoy it fresh and hot. Meze is the traditional type of food consisting of many different kinds of food e.g. greek salad, Koupepia (grape leaves stuffed with minced meat and rice), Lountza (smoked pork, often served in sandwiches) with halloumi, a delicious soft cheese, (usually grilled) made from thyme-fed sheep and sometimes spiced with peppermint; Sheftalia, grilled pork sausage, Afelia , pork marinated in wine and coriander; Stiphado, beef or rabbit stew casseroled with wine vinegar, onions and spices; and Ofto kleftiko, chunks of lamb cooked in a sealed clay oven and seasoned with bay leaves; cool mint and cucumber flavored yogurt with a dusting of garlic, a variation on the Greek tzatziki
etc.

Cyprus wines are among the world's oldest, their production dating back to 2000 BC. Mosaics at the House of Dionysus in Pafos prove to the long history of the Cyprus wine. Dionysus, the pleasure-loving god who taught Icarius how to plant vines in exchange for the hospitality he had shown him, is seated on a chair holding grapes. An inscription that reads "the first wine drinkers" in Greek accompanies a mosaic depiction of two shepherds quite drunk on Icarius's wine. Many renowned wines of the world are made from vines brought to Europe from Cyprus after the Crusades - champagne, for example, may have originated from a choice cutting taken from Mount Olympos , in Cyprus .
Today no Cypriot wine enjoys greater renown than Commandaria , a sweet, robust dessert wine that is said to be the oldest named wine in the world. Called "Nama" in antiquity, it so reminded Marc Antony of Cleopatra's kisses that he gave the whole island to his legendary lover because of it.

Nowadays, many Cypriots have started to produce their own "house wines".