We’ve chosen to source our Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Tunisia. We’ve done this for a few reasons. 

*Tunisia - Tunisia has been growing olive trees since literally before Christ. Thousands of years. The country is literally covered with olive trees.  Most of the trees are old growth, hundreds of years old. They are dry farmed. This means that there is no irrigation system. They only get the water that falls from the sky. Each tree has a radius of 50 feet cleared of brush so the root system of the olive tree can accept all the rain that falls there. The trees are harvested by hand. People, not machines. They use a system of several people with rakes, a giant net and ladders. It takes a good crew about four hours of hard work to harvest each tree. The farmers have generations of experience in determining when each tree is ready to be harvested. Not a giant tractor driving over a row of young, densely planted olive trees for cost and time efficiency.

 

*Smooth flavor profile - As the base for all of our flavored EVOO, we want the flavors we infuse to blend well with the natural olive oil flavor. This works best when the base oil is smooth and buttery versus green, grassy, peppery, bitter. The latter are all flavor profiles that are desirable in varietal EVOO where you want to experience the full spectrum of natural olive flavors, but many of these contrast with the infused flavors.

 

*Price and Purity - Tunisia has traditionally sold most of their production to Italy where it gets sold as “Italian” olive oil “Packaged in Italy”. Even though Italy produces so much olive oil, they are a net importer. Italy consumes three times the amount that they produce.