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

Details
the winners of the Olympia Awards posing together

The international recognition of high phenolic extra virgin olive oil and its disease-fighting properties was the focus of the 9th Olympia Health & Nutrition Awards ceremony on June 27 in Athens, Greece. With more than 600 olive oil samples tested for health-protecting natural phenolic compounds at the University of Athens this year, over 250 were awarded.

Details
different colored olives growing on branches (with different levels of ripeness)

At the 13th edition of the Olive Japan International Olive Oil Competition, the largest olive oil contest in Asia and Oceania, Greek olive oils took home 7 Gold awards and 17 Silvers. With 766 entries from 28 countries competing, 20 judges from 11 countries determined that over 63% of Greek entries deserved awards, even in this very challenging crop year.

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
5 chefs standing in front of the arched doorway of a stone museum building

In certain upscale restaurants in Greece (some in five-star hotels), extra virgin olive oil is now being elevated to the level of fine wine. So at the 2nd International ELIA Lesvos Confest in Greece, chefs discussed recent trends in the use and presentation of olive oil in gastronomy, such as olive oil menus, olive oil bars, and even olive oil sommeliers.

Details
bottles of Greek extra virgin olive oil on supermarket shelves

Is olive oil expensive now? It depends on how you look at it. If you compare prices to a year or two ago, yes. If you consider the price per serving, the cost compared to other purchases, and extra virgin olive oil’s contributions to your food’s flavor and health benefits, no: we are not paying as much as this cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet is worth.

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
a black bottle of Krissa extra virgin olive oil lying on a wooden table with a small white bowl of golden olive oil on the left and a small olive branch on the right

At the 2024 edition of the Athena International Olive Oil Competition (IOOC), 107 Greek olive oils won medals and 8 got special awards. Taking place in a different part of Greece each year—this time in Sparta, Laconia--the Athena IOOC is uniquely dedicated to spotlighting olive oils created from a number of Greek olive varieties grown in diverse regions.

Details
a group of visitors inside an olive oil museum

The 2nd International ELIA Lesvos Confest (an olive conference and festival) took place at the Vrana Olive Press Museum on the island of Lesvos in Greece May 23-26. Local olive farmers joined eminent scientists, olive oil and tourism experts, and chefs to examine olive oil in terms of health, tourism, tradition, marketing, sustainability, and gastronomy.  

Details
many people dancing together in a village square-like setting at Agreco Farms

With the Mediterranean diet ranked the “Best Diet Overall” by U.S. News & World Report for the 7th year in a row in 2024, it is a model for healthy eating. In fact, it is even more. It goes beyond food to include various aspects of the traditional Mediterranean way of life. Resembling other traditional, healthy lifestyles, it is easy for many to embrace.

Details
Mixed salad featuring local products, Botanical Park restaurant in Crete

What is agrotourism? How does it overlap with food tourism? What good is it? We can explore these questions with examples from Greece, one of the European countries trying to expand tourism beyond the beaches and the summer. With its wealth of olive oil, wine, and fresh produce, the Greek countryside reveals the secrets of traditional healthy Greek cuisine.

Details
A handful of olives being picked up from a net on the ground during a harvest

“Olive oil is one of the most important reasons why Crete is known in the rest of the world. Based on this, we can understand that olive oil on our island was and will be the king of foods!” exclaims oil producer Eftychis Androulakis in a perfect example of Cretan passion for a product that is central to the island’s tourism, cuisine, economy, and history. 

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
Dr. Magda Tsolaki given a presentation in front of an audience

At the Cretan Lifestyle Conference in Rethymno, Crete in November, Dr. Magda Tsolaki shared several types of evidence from a clinical trial to support her claim that extra virgin olive oil is “more promising than any drug being studied or any drug which already has been approved” for prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as being safe and ready to use.

Details
Kosterina extra virgin olive oil and flavored olive oil bottles and tin

Katerina Mountanos grew up flying back and forth between the USA and Greece. In her grandparents’ small Greek village, the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle absorbed her. As a mother cooking in her American kitchen, she missed the fresh, healthy, authentic flavors of Greece. So she created Kosterina, a company that brings the goodness of Greece to Americans.

Details
cuttlefish on a cutting board

In this elegant gourmet recipe by chef Vassilis Alexiou, a spicy, full-bodied Manaki extra virgin olive oil from the Peloponnese in Greece gives a boost to the mild flavors of lentils, cuttlefish, and caviar. The recipe exemplifies this Greek chef’s interest in “waking up” or enlivening a recipe that starts out mild, by adding a bold extra virgin olive oil.

Details
bottles of Greek olive oil on shelves in a shop

Businesses and organizations that work with bottled and branded 100% Greek extra virgin olive oil and/or related Greek products or services are invited to consider advertising and sponsorship options on greekliquidgold.com, as explained fully in the article. A range of choices is offered to fit any budget on a site read by consumers in 222 countries.

Major Sponsors

Laconiko Olive Oil
Olive Japan logo

Sponsors

World Olive Center for Health logo

Major Supporters

Kosterina logo
Kosmas Taverna logo
Liokareas logo