Olive Oil

Made from the natural juice of the olive, olive oil is truly a precious “elixir” of life, and helps the people of the Island of Crete maintain health and long life, as well as enjoying delicious food!

It’s a great mystery to anyone who has picked an olive from the tree to work out how someone could have thought that this small fruit would be transformed into a delicious meze on its own or into a nutritious tasty, and health giving oil. Even when looking fat and ripe - straight from the tree, it tastes awful!

But someone did work this out! And from its use in ancient times and the results of study after study, the oil that is pressed from the olive has proven to be a precious gift of nature. The ancient land of Crete is home to 30 million olive trees and the Cretans make full use of the abundant fruit and have been cultivating the olive tree since 3500 BC during the early Minoan period. The Minoan palace of Knossos has an olive press room.

Cretans have eaten olive oil in large quantities for generations. The Seven Countries Study, which followed groups of men in 7 countries from the late 1950s, describes the habitual diet of its Cretan villagers as very high in olive oil and notes Crete’s reputation for longevity.

So it's not surprising that the traditional Cretan Diet uses only olive oil rather than other fats or oils.

Much Cretan olive oil comes from small family groves that are still harvested by hand.

Olive Oil and Your Weight

Olive oil is high in calories, like every fat, so it is not a slimming food on its own. In the PREDIMED trial in Spain, older people who ate a Mediterranean diet rich in extra virgin olive oil, with no calorie limit, showed no significant difference in body weight after 5 years compared with people on a reduced-fat diet, according to the corrected 2019 PREDIMED weight report in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Olive Oil Polyphenols and Antioxidants

Extra virgin olive oil contains polyphenols, natural antioxidants such as hydroxytyrosol, as well as vitamin E. The EU authorises 1 health claim for olive oil polyphenols in Regulation (EU) No 432/2012: “olive oil polyphenols contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress”. The claim applies only to olive oil with at least 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and related compounds per 20 g, and the benefit comes from 20 g of olive oil a day. The EU has authorised no claim that olive oil slows ageing.

Olive oil is also used in skin and hair care. Ideas are in our guide to Olive Oil Beauty Tips.

Olive Oil in Cretan Wedding Tradition

On Crete, newly weds were traditionally given bread soaked in the first olive oil of the year, a custom meant to get married life off to a good start. Olive oil has long had a folk reputation as an aphrodisiac, but this is folklore: the EU has authorised no health claim of this kind.

Olive Oil Helping You Towards a Healthy Heart

Olive oil is rich in oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat. Under the same EU health claims regulation, “replacing saturated fats in the diet with unsaturated fats contributes to the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol levels”. Butter and hydrogenated margarines are high in saturated or trans fats, so cooking with olive oil in their place is a sensible swap. Like all plant oils, olive oil contains no cholesterol.

Olive Oil and the Mediterranean Diet in Research

PREDIMED, a large Spanish trial, tested a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil in people at high risk of heart disease. According to the 2018 PREDIMED report in the New England Journal of Medicine, that group had fewer major cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths combined) over about 5 years than a group advised to follow a reduced-fat diet. The trial tested a whole way of eating, not olive oil alone.

Olive oil is not a medicine. The EU has authorised no health claim that it prevents or treats cancer, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, osteoporosis or dementia, so anyone managing a health condition should follow their doctor’s advice.

Buying Olive Oil

Choosing the right type of olive oil for your needs is not as difficult as it seems. Here are a few guidelines:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The olive oil that comes from the first "pressing" of the olive, is extracted without using heat (a cold press) or chemicals, and is awarded "extra virgin" status. It is a superior olive oil and ideal for using as a salad dressing.

Virgin Olive Oil

Virgin olive oil comes from the second pressing. This is an acceptable alternative to extra virgin olive oil but it does not have the full taste of extra virgin olive oil. This makes it ideal for infusing or adding herbs or spices to the oil.

Pure Olive Oil

Pure olive oil, often named simply olive oil undergoes some processing, such as filtering and refining. This type of olive oil is great for cooking. Added to the different grades assigned to olive oil there are variations in the characteristics of the oils dependent on the origins of the olive. Olive oil differs from one country or region to another because of the following factors:

• Type and variety of olive grown
• Location and soil conditions of the olive grove
• Weather during the growing season
• The ripeness of the Olive
• Timing of the harvest
• Method of harvesting
• Length of time between the harvest and pressing
• The pressing technique
• Methods of packaging and storage

All of these factors play their part to the individual characteristics of the olive oil. Some of the notable characteristics found in olive oils produced in some of the major olive growing areas are:

• California - Californian olive oil is typically light in both colour and flavour, with a mild fruity taste
• Crete - Cretan olive oil is simply the best in the world! Organic, hand harvested and traditionally produced it is outstanding.
• France - French olive oil is normally paler in colour and sweeter and milder in flavour than other varieties
• Greece - Greek olive oil has a strong flavour and aroma and tends to be rich green colour
• Italy - Italian olive oil is usually dark green in colour and has an herbal, peppery and grassy flavour
• Portugal - Portuguese olive oil has a strong, fully ripe flavour and is a delicious golden colour
• Spain - Spanish olive oil is typically golden yellow with a fruity, aromatic, nutty flavour

Storing Olive Oil

Olive oil should be stored in an airtight container, away from heat or light. Correctly stored, good oil has a shelf life of around 12 -18 months. It is not recommended to store olive oil in the refrigerator, as it tends to become cloudy and acquire a gel-like consistency. Leaving it at room temperature for half an hour will return to its previous texture, however.

Using Olive Oil

You can add garlic, herbs or spices to olive oil and allow the flavours to infuse over a period of weeks. Or simply use the pure flavour of extra virgin olive oil for salads, dressings and vinaigrettes. You can also use it to dip fresh crusty bread into or on a baked potato or add it to mashed potatoes instead of butter. When sautéing or frying, use regular olive oil or a blended one. For deep-frying, the simple olive oil grade of "olive oil," is excellent because it has a higher smoke point than virgin or extra virgin oils.

Olive Growing

The olive tree provides wood, leaves, fruit and oil. Olive wood can be used as fuel and for carving and using in furniture manufacture. The silvery green olive leaves are fed to goats on Crete and are also used in medicinal teas for humans! Olives, both black and green, are the luscious fruits of this evergreen tree. And of course olive oil is the liquid gold from this versatile and undemanding tree.

Olive trees grow slowly, taking from five to seven years to produce fruit. When they do, each tree yields just six - eight litres of oil! However, they can have a lifespan of up to 2,000 years. Individual olive trees have supplied countless generations with their religious, culinary, medicinal, heating and lighting and beauty treatment needs for centuries.

As ripening occurs, most olives change from green to purple to dark red to black. About 10 pounds of olives are required to produce 1 litre of olive oil. Most olive trees can provide enough olives to produce about 3 litres of oil and some trees may provide 3 times that quantity.

Harvesting Olive Oil

Olives must be harvested at the correct time in order to obtain the greatest quantity of oil without an increase in the acidity level. The experienced olive grower knows the exact time when the olives should be harvested. Olives that are picked too soon may contain no oil.

Olives contain oil soon after they have turned a light green colour and the volume of oil increases as they become darker green and then change to purple or black.

If the olives are allowed to ripen too long, the volume of oil will continue to increase as will the acidity level, which has a negative impact on the quality.

On Crete and in Greece in general, olives are generally harvested from early November right through to February dependent on the area and variety. Harvesting of the olives on Crete is usually a family affair with children, the elderly, women and men all contributing to the labour intensive and time consuming process.

Hand picking Cretan olives is still the best method for harvesting from the olive groves because it causes the least amount of bruising to the fruit and thus yields the best oil.

Some olive farmers beat the trees with large poles to loosen the olives that fall to nets laid on the ground. Others use large wooden or plastic devices to "comb" through the foliage and loosen the olives.

Pressing Olive Oil

After harvesting, any remaining leaves are removed; the olives are washed and are usually pressed soon after they have been harvested. In many olive growing countries, the olives must be pressed within 72 hours to qualify as virgin oil. Any longer and the olives will begin to ferment resulting in inferior oil.

The basic processes of pressing have essentially remained almost unchanged for thousands of years. Millstone wheels grind the entire olive, including the pit, which is then placed onto mats in thin layers and then pressed to squeeze the pulp. Oil and water filter through the mats to a collection tank below. Finally the oil is separated from the water.