As we do every year, once our olive oil has been pressed but before it has been shipped, we send it to a government certified laboratory for testing. We do this to demonstrate that extra virgin our olive oil is measurably the freshest, purest, highest quality early harvest olive oil available. It begs the question as to why so few other olive oil producers share their lab results publicly.
This year, we used CheMa Laboratories in Corinth, Greece, and obtained the following results:
Acidity
To be considered extra virgin olive oil, it must have an acidity of less than 0.80%. In general, measuring an olive oil’s acidity is a way to approximate the freshness of the olives at the time they are pressed into oil. A lower number (if honestly obtained, without refining the oil) is better.
We take great pains to care for our trees during the growing season. Then, we harvest in a responsible way, gathering our olives in burlap sacks to prevent an accumulation of moisture. We press our olives into oil right away after harvesting to minimize the damage to the fruit and preserve the quality of the oil. As a result, our 2024 olive oil’s acidity levels were 0.34%, a level indicative of truly premium quality. It’s actually better than our previous year’s level of 0.358%.
Peroxide
An olive oil’s peroxide score is a method to test if it has been properly stored. Peroxides are substances that are formed from the chemical reaction of olive oil with oxygen. Prolonged exposure to air results in an increase in oxidation and rancidity. In short, high peroxide levels indicate a product that has not been properly stored, whether due to defective packaging or failure to reseal a container after use.
To be considered extra virgin olive oil, it must have peroxide levels below 20 mEqO2/kg. For 2024, ours came back at 11.8, which is excellent.
Ultraviolet Absorption
One way to determine whether you are dealing with a fraudulent, blended olive oil is through ultraviolet light spectophotometry. Sometimes, the fraud is the result of blending an extra virgin olive oil with a lower quality, refined oil. Other times, the fraud is the result of blending a freshly pressed extra virgin olive oil with an olive oil that has been sitting around for a while.
An olive oil that has been blended with refined oils will have an unacceptably high K232 measurement. Similarly, a supposedly “fresh” olive oil that has been blended with old oil will have a high K268 score.
If the K232 test comes back higher than 2.50, you’re probably looking at a refined, adulterated oil. For 2024, our single source extra virgin olive oil scored an excellent 1.78. If the K268 test comes back higher than 0.22, you’re looking at an old olive oil, not a freshly pressed one. For 2024, our K268 score was 0.16.
The final ultraviolet light test is the Index ΔK. Any score over 0.01 indicates fraud, specifically the blending of an extra virgin olive oil with a non-extra virgin olive oil. For 2024, our single source extra virgin olive oil scored a perfect 0.00.
Polyphenols
Polyphenols provide several health benefits. They can act as antioxidants, meaning they can neutralize harmful free radicals that would otherwise damage your body’s cells and increase the risk of conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
Polyphenols can also reduce inflammation, which is believed to be the root cause of many chronic illnesses. Those same antioxidant properties also contribute to the stability of extra virgin olive oil. Controlling for other variables (such as filtration and exposure to light and heat), olive oil with a high phenolic content will typically have a longer shelf life.
Olive oils with higher phenolic content have a more bitter and “spicy” flavor. They have a little “kick” to them. And as you’ve probably read on our website, we believe that’s a very good thing. Our early-harvest olive oil has a distinct, robust flavor that distinguishes it from the more bland, ordinary olive oils on the market. In Greece, they call olive oil like ours “agourelaio,” and it is a sought-after quality.
Our 2024 oil was harvested between November 3 and November 22. That timing gives it the perfect flavor profile, with just the right amount of “kick” and all of the added health benefits of a high phenolic content of 453 mg / kg.
