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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
Ancient Greeks worshiped Gaea, a primeval goddess viewed as mother of all, creator of the earth and the universe. In modern times, an environmentally friendly Greek company dedicated to spreading the health benefits of the traditional Greek diet throughout the world adopted Gaea’s name, committed to earning it by showcasing the fruits of the Greek soil.
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- Written by By Theodoros Koutsotheodoris, with Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
We have always considered the traditional cultivation of the olive tree in our area an act of poetry. This is the idea behind the name of this extra virgin olive oil. A poem which cannot be read, but can be perceived by the senses, through its golden-green color; its rich fruity, bitter, and pungent taste, and its distinctive, complex bouquet of aromas.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
A few years ago, Dimitris Tsarpalis convinced a group of Greek olive oil producers near Sparta to form a union focused on exporting their extra virgin olive oil throughout the world. This group created Spartan Union and Sparta Groves, combining traditional knowledge with modern technology to produce some of the finest olive oil in Greece—and on earth.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
For thousands of years, olive trees have been cultivated near Sparta in Lakonia, Peloponnese, between the Taygetus and Parnonas mountain ranges, where the olive tree is considered sacred, and the climate and natural environment are ideal for olive growing. There, Sakellaropoulos Organic Farming cultivates organic Kalamata and Koroneiki olives.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
In 2014, Eftihis Androulakis decided to transform the traditional work of generations of family members into a small, cutting-edge olive oil business. He called it Pamako after the linear B ideograms for “medicine,” a good choice since his organic, high phenolic extra virgin olive oil has won awards for both its health benefits and its quality and flavor.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
Hellenic Agricultural Enterprises (HAE) was founded in 2013 on the Aegean island of Lesvos, Greece’s third largest island. Wide expanses of olive groves cover nearly 80% of the island’s arable land. In fact, with eleven million olive trees on its terraced hills, Lesvos has the largest number of olive trees per capita in the world: 126 trees per person.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
Just inside the southern border of the Kolymvari Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) west of Chania, Crete, the little village of Anoskeli is nestled in the foothills of the White Mountains. There the seven Mamidakis siblings were born and raised among thousands of olive trees, grapevines, and citrus trees. And there they started their olive oil business.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
Yanni's Olive Grove is a family business in Nea Potidaia, Chalkidiki, in northern Greece. In the last three years, Yanni’s extra virgin olive oils (EVOOs) have received 35 awards at major international olive oil competitions, including acclaim as ultra-healthy EVOOs and listings as some of the Top EVOOs of the World, according to the EVOO World Ranking.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
Biolea was born when Yiorgos Dimitriadis returned to his native Crete in the early 1990s and decided to rejuvenate the olive groves that had been in his family for five generations. Determined to be kind to the environment, he turned to organic olive cultivation and dedicated himself to fulfilling his vision of high quality, artisanal olive oil production.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
What happens when a successful teacher of ancient languages, owner of the popular Synchrono private tutoring schools in Athens, ventures into the olive oil world? He takes Homer’s description of olive oil as “liquid gold” literally and adds gold flakes to the extra virgin olive oil that has long engaged the hearts and minds of his ancestors and his country.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
The Mihelakis family’s Kolympari S.A. olive oil company near Chania in northwest Crete is continuing the time honored traditions of true artisans who have created fine extra virgin olive oils from the Koroneiki olives that have been harvested for centuries from olive groves in their region, which offers the perfect climatological conditions for olives.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
Giovanni Bianchi is an Italian computer programmer who works in Rome. He is also the producer of Argali Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which was judged one of the best olive oils in the world for 2016. Proud to produce one of the best Greek olive oils, he says his “dream would be to return to Greece and make this great passion my job.”
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
Kyriakos Makratzis traveled the world as a ship captain for fifteen years. He took a break each autumn to help with the olive harvest on his family’s farm in Kontomari, Platanias, Crete, since the olives seemed to call to him across the seas. Then, after his first son was born, he gave up his seafaring and his respected position to return to his roots.
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- Written by Lisa Radinovsky
- Category: Olive Oil Companies' Profiles
Since 1860, the Katsetos family has owned an estate in the sun drenched hills of Greece’s Mani peninsula. That estate now provides the fruit for a superlative quality olive oil that is luscious and soft with a full, round body and a strong fruity aroma. With hints of papaya and distinct floral notes, it evokes fields of buttercups and long summer days.