California Olive Oil and The Olive Press Featured in San Francisco Chronicle

Posted by Olivia on Tue, January 15, 2013

If there were ever a momentous time for California extra virgin olive oil, it’s right now!

Earlier this week an article ran in the SFGate profiling the rise of the California extra virgin olive oil industry, and we’re delighted to be featured in the piece. At a time when imported olive oils are undergoing investigation for flooding the marketplace with fraudulent oil, we’re seeing our local harvest as a great rebuttal and testament to the fortitude of California olive oil.

2012 proved to be the largest olive harvest ever here in California, according to the SFGate article. The Olive Press stands among other local mills producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil that’s not only abundant in our state—but also certified.

The California Olive Oil Council (COOC) is a panel of experts that blind-tastes olive oil—and also analyses it in a lab—to determine and certify authentic “extra virgin” status. For consumers who don’t know if what they’re buying is truly “extra virgin,” it makes sense to buy only certified olive oils. (And of course, all of the extra virgin olive oil at The Olive Press is COOC certified!)

California is quickly rising in the global olive oil industry as a producer of high-quality, authentic olive oils, and we’re excited to see such wonderful coverage of this growing trend in the marketplace.

Even more exciting for us right now at The Olive Press is our current experimentation with new olive varieties in the mill. Olive oil blends produced in California are typically made from Spanish and Italian olives, but we’ve recently begun crushing French varieties as well for select small private producers.

It’s been a great harvest year for us here in California, and it’s marked even stronger by the positive recognition we’re getting in the marketplace. California olive oil is valued for its integrity and high quality, and we are thrilled as ever to be players in its evolution.

Thanks to all for the continued support of California extra virgin olive oil!

Read the full article in the SFGate here.