Extra Virgin Olive Oil is cold pressed from olives harvested before they are fully ripened, this makes the purest, highest quality olive oil. Our olives produce less oil than some, but are of superior quality. "Virgin" olive oil is the term for oil pressed from very ripe olives, which produce oil higher in fatty acid and reduced health benefits, Virgin Olive Oil is good, but not as pure as Extra virgin Olive Oil. "Pure" olive oil is a commercial grade oil which blends flavors and second pressings of the olives. This is the least pure of the three.

Think of extra virgin olive oil as you would pure fruit juice -- that's exactly what it is. Fruit gathered by hand is rushed to the olive press and "squeezed" so that you can have a sweet, fresh product which is as remarkably healthy for you as it is delicious. Why use oil extracted from grain or seeds that have been chemically processed when you can have this beautiful product which has been a staple of the Mediterranean diet since Biblical times?

Sun, stone, drought, silence and solitude: these are the five ingredients that, according to Italian folk traditions, create the ideal habitat for the olive tree.

We treasure extra-virgin olive oil for its nutritional and salutary virtues. La Cucina Italiana reports that extra-virgin olive oil is the most digestible of the edible fats: it helps to assimilate vitamins A, D and K; it contains so-called essential acids that cannot be produced by our own bodies; it slows down the aging process; and it helps bile, liver and intestinal functions. It is also valued for its culinary virtues and organoleptic properties as well: flavor (sapore), bouquet (aroma), and color (colore)

Climate, soil, variety of tree (cultivar) and time of harvest account for the different organoleptic properties of different oils. Certain extra-virgin olive oils are blends of varieties of olives; others are made from one cultivar.

The European Community gives the following parameters:
* Extra-virgin olive oil with perfect taste is oil of the highest quality; it has a minimum organoleptic rating of 6.5 out of 10, low acidity (1% or less), and is untreated.

* Olive oil has a minimum organoleptic rating of 5.5, a maximum of 2% acidity and is untreated.

* The production of all other olive oils involves treatments.