If you have just joined us, welcome. Perhaps a friend has poured you something delicious over lunch, or you have heard Elizabeth talking about olive oil and wanted to find out more. However you arrived, we’re very pleased you’re here.
There is so much confusion surrounding smoke point of cooking oils. Just to be clear, when you heat an oil, it does indeed change and cooking at high temperatures for extended periods of time can cause an oil to oxidise or incur rancidity.READ MORE
Marco Viola represents the third generation of olive oil producers. Based in Foligno, Umbria, his company Frantoio Viola continues a tradition of excellence in Italian extra virgin olive oil making that spans over 70 years.READ MORE
Healthy eating is not only about what you choose — it is about how you prepare it.
Add extra virgin olive oil to your vegetables and something remarkable happens. Flavour deepens. Texture softens. And, as science increasingly confirms, nutrition becomes more available to your body.READ MORE
Extra Virgin Olive Oil is freshly pressed juice that arrives once a year as autumn sets in and winter is in your sights. It has absolutely no additives or preservatives and is the only cooking oil made without the use of chemicals or industrial refining. Just let that sit for a moment.READ MORE
They say that when you arrive in Campania, you cry twice: once when you arrive and again when you leave. Such is the magnetic draw of the Italian south, where you earn your welcome and where total confusion brushes shoulders with strokes of genius. READ MORE
This spring we travelled to the Adriatic to the wild and wonderful region of Abruzzo to visit Tommaso Masciantonio and his family, caretakers of the most beautiful piece of terroir that they dedicate their lives to.READ MORE
Our Frantoi founder, Elizabeth Berger, joined the CEO of Zoe, Jonathan Wolf, and Tim Spector MD FRCP FRSB, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, to talk olive oil, polyphenols, and the benefits of eating what’s in season. You can listen to the full podcast here.READ MORE
Not only are there around 600 different pasta shapes in Italy (depending on who you ask and in what dialect), there are also over 600 different olive cultivars across the country, so it’s no surprise that certain oils are better suited to certain sauces than others.READ MORE
Olive oil is the only commercially important edible oil extracted from fruit rather than seeds (such as sunflower, rapeseed/canola, soy etc). Because the fruit contains considerable amounts of water, extraction is done mechanically with a centrifuge or press, seed oils however generally require industrial solvents, typically hexane to extract the oil. READ MORE
Research shows us that anything between 2-4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in our daily diet is hugely beneficial to our overall health, especially in combination with other elements of the Mediterranean diet. READ MORE
We now have enough distance from the 2023 harvest to take stock of what happened and to have seen the oils settle. So, what’s the verdict?
Did you know that taking paracetamol depletes your reserves of glutathione?
There is a great deal of research out there showing that glutathione is vital for optimizing cellular function and maintaining overall health. READ MORE
There are 36 known polyphenols in Extra Virgin Olive Oil belonging to different classes based on their molecular weights and structures. This level of science is researched extensively and if you wanted to dive deeper see some references below*.READ MORE
Antioxidants play an essential role in maintaining our health by nеutralizing harmful oxygеn frее radicals, which arе by-products of thе natural oxidation processes occurring in our cеlls. READ MORE
It might seem as if olive oil is just that. However, there are a number of different quality grades that warrant a bit of explanation to help you navigate labels and make the best choices.READ MORE
The culture of extra virgin olive oil is habitual in Italy and surrounding Mediterranean countries, it’s something you grow up with and is integrated in to your diet from the very start.READ MORE
There are many myths surrounding extra virgin olive oil and there’s a huge deal of misinformation out there, so we thought it was time to set the record straight.READ MORE
There are some (actually many) things in life that just read as inexact science. When it comes to the health benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil however, we are thrilled that evidence mounts by the month in support of its supreme benefits.READ MORE
Olive trees are pollinated when the pollen is released from the flowers and transported from one plant to another. In some cases, a tree may also self-fertilise.READ MORE
Bowled over by the quality of these incredible oils, we have added them to our portfolio in Puglia, not out of need, but out of desire. Puglia is of course Italy’s most prolific olive oil region and because of this, we taste extensively and regularly. This always gives us the chance to discover something new and we have come close in the past to selecting new names to join the ranks but never crossed the line.READ MORE
Both for business and for pleasure, we have travelled a good deal this year, frankly more than we should have. I am always curious to see how olive oil is represented in top restaurants outside of Italy because like all fine ingredients, it’s a critical choice for a chef.READ MORE
Your oils will be dispatched from Italy in the days ahead and as soon as they are on their way, you will hear from the courier with tracking details. READ MORE
2021 has been a challenging season for our growers as they battled with late frost, followed by unsettled weather during flowering, over all significantly less water throughout the growing season and then a countrywide heat spike in August that impacted most regions.READ MORE
As the autumn really sets in we only have to look to nature to know that it’s time to replenish our reserves for the winter ahead. The surrounding trees and bushes are offering us berries and nuts loaded with the antioxidants and nutrients that we need. We set aside ingredients to sustain us through the colder months either by drying or preserving. Refilling, restoring, reserving all in anticipation of cold weather ahead when there is less access to fresh produce.READ MORE
Gone are the days when the disturbing pace at which our climate is evolving was an elephant in the room that we didn’t wish to mention. The past, strange 24 months have surely brought even the most sceptical out of obscurity with constant alarms of flash flooding, wild fires, extreme droughts and excessive temperatures.READ MORE
One of the things that most people have had in common during these last very complicated 12 months is the incredible amount of cooking we’ve all had to take on. Particularly when schools were closed, three meals a day, plus lots of merende were being executed, with very little respite. READ MORE
Extra Virgin Olive Oil is freshly pressed juice that arrives once a year as autumn sets in. It has absolutely no additives or preservatives and is the only cooking oil made without the use of chemicals or industrial refining. Just let that sit for a moment.READ MORE
‘Itis’ is a wonderful colloquial word to describe the feeling of tiredness after you eat too much (food coma is a pretty useful term too). But what if you are often feeling slight itis – always a little full and a little exhausted? Nutritionists will tell you it is worth considering your bacterial flora and that potentially, your digestive tract could be inflamed.READ MORE
You need to be drinking this. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is an incredibly powerful natural anti-inflammatory. It is exactly what nutritionists and immunologists are talking about us needing during this global pandemic. But it’s not a concocted supplement; it’s a naturally pressed juice with no additives.
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The Cutrera family, based in the South East of Sicily produce sublime, decisive, elegant Extra Virgin Olive Oils from indigenous cultivars that truly taste of their origin. We have selected four of these that we feel are exceptional for different reasons and you can find out more about them on our dedicated section of our website: http://www.frantoi.org/cutrera/
The market for Olive Oil is vast – in Italy domestic demand outstrips supply and so you can imagine how much oil needs to be sourced from outside to fulfill the volume demands of large companies who supply supermarkets around the globe. You can find an incredibly broad range of quality in the bottle therefore.
There are many different methods utilized to extract oil from olives, the method that we know most about and feel passionate about is that employed by each of our producers, so this is the method described here.
Appearance: If Extra Virgin Olive Oil has been produced from green olives (and the best have) then immediately after pressing, your oil will be quite a vivid green colour. This drops back to a golden tone throughout the oil’s shelf life (around 18 months).READ MORE
Small dark glasses are typically used to taste olive oil because colour is a minor factor in judging quality and style. The glass is warmed in the hands ideally to around 28°C (the temperature at which the oil’s aromatic substances become volatile) and then you take in the full aromas firstly just by smelling. You then take a small amount in to your mouth and perform a kind of slurping or sharp intake of air known as strippaggio which allows an oxygen exchange, similar to wine tasting, that allows full appreciation of the taste, texture and complexity.READ MORE
As a general rule of thumb, Olive Oil has an 18 month shelf life. To be honest, if you buy dark glass bottles, sealed with the best caps and bottled under inert gas, your oil should last well beyond this.
Many people refer to Olive Oil simply as that and fair enough, we are not pretentious in any way about this. However, there is some important terminology that helps you navigate the decision making process, so here is a summary of what you need to look out for.
The olive is a fruit, or more precisely a ‘drupe’, which indicates a large stone inside like a peach or cherry. Packed full of the compound oleuropein it is intensely bitter, has an extremely low sugar content and a very high oil content varying on the time of harvest and cultivar.
Most of the 2019 Season has now been pressed and we’ve managed to taste extensively to be able to give you an overview of this tiny, high quality vintage.
It’s a common myth that it’s not a good idea to cook with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We read about this almost daily and it frustrates us hugely, so that’s a good enough reason to dig up some facts for you.
2018 was a small olive harvest in Italy as widely documented, with yields falling to a 25-year low and fears that the country may not be able to continuously supply demand until the 2019 harvest release.
When you have something special in your larder, there’s something inherent in many of us that wishes to savour it, to use it sparingly. I must say that this approach to life is something I cherish and value highly. It’s something that reminds me of my grandparents; of times gone by when we all knew that we should indeed value fine things, treat them with care. Great Olive Oil however is an ingredient that requires you to re-evaluate this approach somewhat.READ MORE
The harvest season is still underway in Italy and the presses are running around the clock for these intense few weeks. We’re delighted to be offering the 2018 harvest to you for this limited window of time so that you can receive the very freshest oils with the highest polyphenolic concentration in time for Christmas.
We are excited to tell you that we’ve started working with a new family, producing sublime oils from Calabria.
We are on the verge of the 2018 harvest here in Italy. It’s the moment of truth as our producers are starting up their mills to ensure they are in perfect working order to receive the first fruit. As those of you who follow us closely will know, we always select oils that derive from green olives so our harvest begins ahead of many. This means far lower volumes, but in terms of quality, there is no comparison.READ MORE
You may have seen some coverage in the media about the adverse properties of Coconut oil, which is pretty hard to digest if you’ve been using it relatively abundantly in your lives. So, we’ve summarised the main reasons to switch it out of your life in favour of Olive oil (and we don’t even mention the flavour)READ MORE
Olive oil was used by the Ancient Greeks in an incredible variety of ways according to Tom Mueller, who wrote the fascinating book Extra Virginity. It was used as food, fuel, a skin lotion, a contraceptive, detergent, a preservative, pesticide, perfume, adornment, a cure for heart ailments, to relieve stomach aches and against hair loss, flatulence and excessive perspiration. Amazing!!READ MORE
We consider the producers we work with to be the very best in their region, crafting sublime EVOO that truly represents its origin. And goodness, it’s gratifying to know that we’re not the only ones to think this.
As the Olive harvest comes to a close in Italy, the nets are rolled up and crates stacked away and everyone who has worked so hard to collect the fruit of this year can now finally enjoy their bruschetta. Harvest is incredibly manual and gruelling and as the weather is finally turning chilly here it’s time to batten down the hatches and leave the trees to rest. READ MORE
We are frequently asked whether a monocultivar oil is better than a blend of multi cultivars. The best way to explain this is via wine. A wine made of a single varietal isn’t necessarily better – many of the best wines in the world are a blend of more than one variety, think Chateau Margaux, Vieux Telegraphe Chateuneuf du Pape or Sassicaia. The important point is that a blend of cultivars should be greater than the sum of its parts.
The Olive Harvest has begun in Italy in the past few days and so we thought you may like to know what to expect from your 2017 oils.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil is relatively fragile and like fine wine, benefits from storage in a cool (ideally 12-16°C), dark place and importantly away from large temperature fluctuations.
It may surprise you to hear the colour of your olive is purely an indication of maturity. All olives begin green and only when they mature do they take on flecks of purple and eventually become black.
The Jury is very much out on the topic of denocciolato (pitted) olive oils. It’s pretty interesting to decipher the arguments on both sides as we try to figure out what makes an olive oil have a longer shelf life, what influences the acidity level or polyphenol content for example. The more people I ask about it, the more opinions come back. READ MORE
We are delighted to be able to offer the 2016 harvest from the six frantoi we work with around Italy. We have put together a selection of boxes, either compilations of different regions or frantoi specific, made by one producer. READ MORE
The milling season is an incredibly intense period for the good people we work with – they tend to work an 18 hour day, seven days per week and for at least two months, ensuring the fruit is flawless, is taken quickly to the mill, and then transformed in to our favourite juice. There are pitfalls all the way, and they have to be extremely careful at every stage.
It has cooled down significantly here in Tuscany over the past couple of weeks. Chilly evenings and misty mornings signal the beginning of autumn and we are abuzz with harvest. Each season has its challenges of course and this year has been no exception. Due to a fairly cool and damp spring, flowering was late and sporadic in many areas of Italy.
How does an Olive grower decide whether to produce edible olives or press their fruit to make oil? In many cases it comes down to the cultivar – certain olives are better to eat than as oil (such as Kalamata). For some however, it is more simply a numbers game.READ MORE
Olive Oil has been used for over 8,000 years in many different ways. The Ancient Greeks discovered its use as fuel, skin lotion, as a contraceptive, detergent, preservative, pesticide, perfume, adornment, a cure for heart ailments, to relieve stomachaches and against hair loss, flatulence and excessive perspiration, ah yes and of course, as a food. READ MORE
It may surprise you to hear the colour of your olive is purely an indication of maturity. All olives begin green and only when they mature do they take on flecks of purple and eventually become black.READ MORE
For some years before we started to get to know Extra Virgin Olive Oil properly, we bought our oil in clear glass bottles with a beer-bottle cap and an attractive cloudy appearance. I’m just telling you this, so that you don’t feel rubbish if you have done the same.
Managing your olive grove is a personal matter – we have seen examples of many different methods and varying levels of dedication. What it comes down to for us is attention to detail – those that make the very best extra virgin olive oil tend to be the same people who put the most effort in to caring for their olive trees. As such, described below is our ‘model’ growing season and that employed by each producer we work with.
1. Shipping your Extra Virgin Olive Oil directly from the mill is the only way to be certain of its provenance. We are absolutely sure of the origin of each of the oils that we have selected for you.READ MORE
