The juice of the fruit of the olive tree is one of mother nature's miracles.  Olive oil has invaluable benefits for our health and Greece is renowned for the quality of its olive oil and justifiably so.  It is wondrous for the heart, internal organs, nails, hair... you name it.



 
Unfortunately for the consumer abroad, however, by the time the olive oil reaches him via the supermarket shelf it cannot even remotely compare with the 'first squeeze' we the producers consider true extra virgin olive oil. 

 


Through hundreds of years, cared for and tended to the very way my ancestors did.  As a family we always commence our olive picking (by hand) in late October.  The olives are taken in cloth sacks to the processing plant and are cold pressed.  Although olive oil may vary in weight and colour depending on its country of origin, Greek first squeezed olive oil is by no means a regular yellow colour.  It is almost green, or at least a very very deep yellow and very thick in consistency.  There are two methods of processing and cold pressed olive oil is, without a doubt, superior in flavour and quality to thermally refined olive oil.    The finest olive oil available is the extra virgin with virgin olive oil in second place, although the latter cannot compare with the former, and then we have 'premature' olive oil which is, albeit somewhat more bitter, exceptional.  Premature olive oil is called premature simply because the olives are picked prematurely.  Instead of late October and onward they have been picked and processed by early to mid October.  Unfortunately, it is not usually available abroad and even within producing countries it is available only for a couple of months a year immediately after production.
 

Anything of less quality will not be sold to the consumer, at least by us here on Authentic-Greek-Recipes.com.  Our olive oil production is a family operation and we have taken great pride in producing only excellence throughout many many generations.
 

Basically it is the acid elements that are contained in olive oil which may dilute its flavour and purity.  The longer olives stand in the sacks which hold them, after picking, until they are processed, the more acidity the oil will have.  The acidity level in olive oil will dramatically rise if the olives are left in their sacks for even a few days.  Unfortunately for the consumer abroad there is no way he can check the acidity level of bottled olive oil regardless of what the bottle label may state.
 

Olive oil is unlike good wine which ages well and improves with time and the consumer has no way of knowing the month and year of the processing of the olive oil which is important. 

Olive oil has a relatively short storage life (in whatever form) from the moment it is processed with an ideal maximum period of 18 months.  After that point, simply because of age, its acidity content sky-rockets and it dilutes drastically.  So, what is readily available is oil that is processed, emptied into specific containers, sold to local co-ops, stored until it is then sold to global co-ops, stored again until it is checked, bottled and labeled depending on country of origin and quality.  At some point it will finally make it through the storage houses through a long and winding road to supermarket storage... and THEN the shelf...
 
 

Extra Virgin First Squeeze Cold Pressed Olive Oil of Zakynthos Island, Greece. 0% - 0.1% acidity content. Date of Processing:  October/November 2006. Place of Processing:  Zakynthos Island, Greece.