• olive groves on hills
  • header_olives_v2
  • wildflowers
  • blossoms
  • olive branches

Details
olive branches with olives in the foreground, olives groves, hills, and sky in the background

In 2019, UNESCO officially declared November 26 World Olive Tree Day and added it to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The International Olive Council embraced the holiday, which is also known as World Olive Day or World Olive and Olive Oil Day. The olive tree and its products are now celebrated on this day with events in many countries.

Details
Olive oil producers discussing their innovations outside their mill

Stakeholders in the Greek olive and livestock sectors who are facing challenges are invited to a free B2B event to connect with innovators offering solutions to common problems. Online and face-to-face presentations and 1-on-1 meetings will take place in Chania, Crete on December 16-17 as part of the LIVINGAGRO project funded by the ENI CBC Med Programme.

Details
Bottles and tins of olive oil on store shelves

This is the revised edition of a list that should grow very long but still has a great deal of room to grow—and additions are welcome. It focuses on where to buy bottled and branded 100% Greek extra virgin olive oils (EVOOs), since these are high quality, healthy olive oils that have their flavor sealed into bottles where oxygen cannot harm its quality.

Details
Part of a tin of Yanni's Finest extra virgin olive oil lying on its side, with some golden olive oil pouring out

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a controversial drug that may slow cognitive decline in patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Uncertainty about the drug’s efficacy and cost and concern about the possibility of serious side effects led three FDA advisory committee members to resign. Could extra virgin olive oil do better?

Details
olive oils and other products on the shelves of a specialty store in Athens, with a small table for sampling products in front of the shelves

Greek Liquid Gold asked Greek olive oil experts about the best ways to select and preserve extra virgin olive oil to retain its optimal flavor and maximum health benefits. They shared useful advice about where to buy olive oil, what to look for as you shop, where to keep your olive oil at home, and how long its excellent flavor and health benefits can last.

Details
Boiled greens with olive oil and lemon on a white plate

How should I use olive oil? Greeks don’t need to ask, since they consume more of this liquid gold per capita than anyone else in the world. To help those outside the major olive growing regions, Greek Liquid Gold asked Greek olive oil producers and company representatives, plus two prominent European chefs, about their favorite ways to eat olive oil.

Details
Eftychis Androulakis sorting olives amidst olive mill machinery

(Photo essay) On a cloudy November day, we headed west of Chania, Crete to explore olive-avocado intercropping and witness the production of olive oil in a mill full of new inventions. Setting out to film a short video about innovative practices and machinery, we encountered the sights, sounds, colors, aromas, and flavors of the Greek olive oil world.

Details
two whole fish on a plate of olive oil, with the sea in the background

We know we should eat nutritious foods to stay well, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. Many also realize extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) offers numerous health benefits, so it can play a vital role in a healthy diet. While no food has been proven to prevent or treat COVID-19, some evidence suggests EVOO could help us combat the novel coronavirus.

Details
a plate piled high with brown melomakarona cookies, with angel decorations near the plate and a bit of Christmas tree in the background

Melomakarona, traditional Greek Christmas cookies, tend to be rich in olive oil and honey (with the beginning of their name coming from meli, the Greek word for honey). Dr. Eleni Melliou, president of the World Olive Center for Health in Athens, shared a version of her grandmother’s cookie recipe that uses super healthy high phenolic extra virgin olive oil.

Details
fresh olive oil streaming from a pipe and flowing through a filtering screen in an olive mill

What is high-phenolic olive oil? It pops up more and more on social media, websites, and news articles, yet it is usually not clearly defined. A Greek scientific team seeks to change that. They analyzed more than 5700 olive oil samples over 11 years, then proposed a definition of “high-phenolic olive oil” partly based on how long its healthy phenols last.

Details
The Oliverse duo with some of their students

What should I do with this olive oil? Four years ago, two Greek olive oil professionals decided to focus on answering that question. Kostas Tsoronis and Panagiotis Papanikolopoulos created Oliverse and started leading seminars in Greece and online to explore olive oil – food pairings: the way specific extra virgin olive oils combine with particular foods.

Details
Small bowls of olive oil and olives

Olive oil is good for us--so good that it is considered both a healthy food and a delicious medicine! There are so many articles about the scientific evidence for the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil that it’s hard to keep track of them. Here is an overview, followed by links to the best, clearest, most useful recent articles I’ve read.

Details
Diamantis Pierrakos with harvested olives behind him on nets in the olive grove

At the 2021 edition of the Olivinus international olive oil competition in Argentina, Greek olive oils claimed 52 of the 243 awards. Competing with 419 olive oils from 17 countries, Greek companies distinguished themselves at the largest olive oil competition in the Southern Hemisphere, a contest many also consider the most important in South America.

Details
olive tree plain below Achladokambos, with mountains in the distance

Many scientific studies have provided evidence of olive oil’s health benefits. Registered dietitian and nutritionist Elena Paravantes is a strong advocate of this healthy oil and the Greek Mediterranean diet where it plays a major role. She believes this oil and diet contributed to her progenitors’ longevity. For example, her grandfather lived 104 years.

Details
Washing olives at a mechanized olive mill in Astrikas village, Crete

Olives enter the olive receiving area on conveyor belts for separation from leaves and branches and then enter the mill. They may be washed either outside or inside the mill. In both traditional and modern mills, olives are ground or crushed into a paste which is pressed or churned to release oil that must then be separated from other liquids and solids.

Details
A couple harvesting olives on a steep hillside

Harvest time, method, and duration vary according to a number of factors, but harvesting tends to be labor intensive in Greece due to the country’s rocky, hilly, and mountainous terrain. Since ripening time varies according to the olive variety and location (including elevation), the harvest does not occur at the same time in all parts of Greece.

Details
a closeup photo of Pamako founder Eftychis Androulakis

For the first time, says Pamako’s Eftychis Androulakis, an extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has been officially approved as a food supplement. While EVOO is also a healthy natural food, this early harvest Greek olive oil is so rich in antioxidants, and is produced, stored, and bottled with such care, that it can be prescribed by Belgian and Luxembourg doctors.

Details
a bottle of Terra Creta Grand Cru extra virgin olive oil lying on its side next to a glass of olive oil, with a white plate full of colorful vegetables to the left

For the first time in thirteen years, a Greek olive oil company won first prize at the Mario Solinas Quality Award, which many consider the world’s most prestigious olive oil contest. Terra Creta’s Grand Cru extra virgin olive oil captured First Prize in the “mild green fruitiness” category. Another Greek company, Agriston, was one of just ten finalists.

Details
Kyklopas Ages extra virgin olive oil being poured from a black bottle into a clear glass dish, with its special box to the left

Greek companies captured 10 Extra Gold medals and 13 Golds at the BIOL International Prize in Italy. Many consider BIOL the world’s most important international competition for organic extra virgin olive oils. Prize-winning organic oils from several olive varieties and various parts of Greece demonstrated Greeks’ commitment to both quality and our planet.

Details
a handful of green olives after their harvest

The Liokareas Olive Oil Company’s High Phenolic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) won first place at the 2020/2021 World’s Best Healthy EVOO Contest in Spain, tied with an EVOO from Chile. Three other Greek companies, Eirini Plomariou, G Team, and Therianos Family, also ranked among the top ten healthy EVOOs at this unusual international olive oil competition.

Details
Olive trees behind the amphitheater at Ancient Aptera in Crete

Archaeologist Anaya Sarpaki explains in On the Olive Routes that olive trees have existed longer than modern humans. For example, wild olive leaf fossils from the Greek island of Evia date back 23 million years. At Santorini, 37,000 to 50,000 year old leaf fossils from the olive species Olea europaea have been discovered in the volcanic crater.

Details
the very wide, bulging, textured trunk of an ancient olive tree, with a small wooden sign that says "Arnold Schwarzenegger" tied around it

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a celebrity chef, and several German actors are sponsoring ancient olive trees on the island of Crete in Greece. Their donations and the resulting publicity help preserve these impressive Greek natural monuments, which are in danger of destruction due to financial pressures and inadequate awareness of their multi-faceted value.

Details
A banner ad with the words "Canada IOOC 2021 Olive Oil Contest," next to olive oil pouring out of a bottle

In its inaugural year, the Canada International Olive Oil Competition (IOOC) attracted 411 extra virgin olive oils and flavored olive oils from 20 countries. Fourteen judges from nine different nations evaluated the oils, judging Greece worthy of 87 medals, more than any other country. This included six Platinum awards for oils produced by four companies.

Details
Antonia Trichopolou speaking at the Food Expo in Athens

A world-famous expert on the Mediterranean diet, Dr. Antonia Trichopoulou, spoke to a Greek audience about “Extra Virgin Olive Oil: The Secrets We All Know” at the Food Expo in Athens this spring. “We all know olive oil,” she said; “it’s in our DNA. Olive oil is not only health … it is culture, it is tradition, it is the economy, it is the environment.”

Details
Olive Temple workers sorting harvested olives in the grove

At the 2021 Athena International Olive Oil Competition (Athena IOOC), Greece earned an impressive 179 awards: 18 Special awards, 9 Double Golds, 49 Golds, 52 Silvers, and 51 Bronze medals. A newcomer to international competitions, A.M.G. Karabelas, won the Best of Greece award for Laurel & Flame Fresh extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) from near Ancient Olympia.

Details
bottles of Greek olive oil on shelves in a shop

All certified companies that produce, bottle, and/or export bottled and branded 100% Greek extra virgin olive oil are welcome to take advantage of all the advertising and sponsorship options on www.greekliquidgold.com. Other relevant businesses and organizations are invited to become sponsors or major supporters, purchase banner ads, and take advantage of writing and editing services.

Major Sponsors

Laconiko Olive Oil

Sponsors

Olive Temple

Major Supporters

AG-Design-Agency_Levantes-Family-Farm-1-revised-390x260
Liokareas logo
OLEA logo 390x260