What makes a good olive oil is not written on the price tag. It is written in the acidity level, the polyphenols — and the hours between harvest and mill.
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Olive oil is one of the most frequently adulterated foods in Europe. The gap between a supermarket blend and a single-estate oil is enormous — but you need to know where to look. This guide expands on the terms in our glossary: the grades, the lab values and the craft decisions that define quality.
“Extra virgin” is the highest EU grade: the oil is extracted by mechanical means only, with no chemical treatment, and free fatty acids stay below 0.8 %. This acidity level is the key lab value on the analysis certificate — premium oils often sit far below it. It tells you how gently the olives were harvested, stored and milled.
Polyphenols are the olive's natural antioxidants. They protect the oil from oxidation — and they cause the peppery tickle in your throat. That pungency is not a flaw but a sign of freshness. From 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives per 20 g of oil, an olive oil may officially claim in the EU to help protect blood lipids from oxidative stress.
Cold extracted means the paste never exceeds 27 °C during milling. Heat would raise the yield but destroys volatile aromas and heat-sensitive polyphenols. Look for “cold extracted” or “cold pressed” on the label — without it, there is no guarantee of gentle processing.
Every olive in a single-estate oil comes from one grove — no blending across farms or countries. That gives the oil a distinctive character and full traceability: you know where the trees grow, who tends them and when they were harvested.
Olives are fruit — and they spoil like fruit. Left sitting after harvest, oxidation and fermentation begin, acidity rises and off-flavours develop. Milling within a few hours is decisive. Good growers bring their olives to the mill on harvest day.
The EU organic logo guarantees farming without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers. It is no substitute for tasting — but it ensures the grove and the mill follow strict, annually inspected rules.
Our oils come from individual, organically certified estates around the Mediterranean — from France to Türkiye. We know the growers personally, buy directly and without intermediaries. Every oil is extra virgin, cold extracted and made from a single harvest of a single estate.
The short version of these terms lives in our glossary on the homepage. To the glossary