Description
Shipping in 24–48h.
Arbequina olive oil is known for its smooth, delicate character, while Marteña (Picual) and Lechín varieties are more intense.
How is extra virgin olive oil made?
Extra virgin olive oil is a 100% natural juice that retains the aroma, flavour, vitamins and natural characteristics of the olive. It is the only vegetable oil that can be consumed exactly as it is obtained. It comes directly from olives through a mechanical extraction process — rather more involved than simply squeezing an orange.
When the olives arrive at the mill, they are first cleaned to remove impurities such as leaves and small twigs collected with the fruit. Once clean, the olives are ready for milling, a process that essentially consists of four stages. Throughout the process, both the olives and the oil remain in contact only with inert material (stainless steel) to prevent any alteration.
The first stage is milling. The olives are crushed in a mill to break the cell structures that contain the oil — rather like using a very large kitchen blender. The result is an olive paste containing crushed flesh, pieces of stone and skin, oil and the olive’s natural water.
The next stage is malaxation. The olive paste is slowly mixed to make it uniform and encourage tiny droplets of oil to join together into larger drops. It is important that this stage does not exceed 90 minutes and that the paste remains below approximately 27–28°C.
Once mixed, the paste moves on to centrifugation. In a decanter, the paste is spun at high speed so its components separate according to density. Inside the cylindrical drum, the different components form concentric layers: the pomace, made up of olive solids, stone and skin with some moisture, forms the outer layer; the olive’s vegetation water forms the middle layer; and the less dense oil forms the innermost layer.
The final stage is filtration. Different mills use different systems to remove the final traces of moisture and impurities. Common methods include vertical centrifuges, settling tanks and stainless-steel mesh filters. Once clean, the oil is ready to move to storage before bottling.
