Extra virgin olive oil is made simply by crushing the olive fruit to extract the oil. It is a very old process with evidence of olive cultivation and pressing for oil from thousands of years ago, and while equipment and technology is updated, the premise remains the same in the process. Crushed olives.

Here is how extra virgin olive oil is made in our oil mills now.

At the olive harvest, the freshly picked olives are delivered to the mill the same day they are collected from the tree’s. It is essential that they are pressed within 24 hours of picking as soon as they are picked they will start to degrade. Quite simply, if they are not pressed within 24 hours, it will not be extra virgin olive oil.

When they arrive at the mill, the olives are poured into a sorting bin to remove the excess foliage, leaves, twigs, that is collected along with the fruit during harvesting. Although the mill's technology has certainly updated from the ancient olive stones, there is a still a by hand aspect to it. Here you can see at Aleandri mill, extra foliage being picked out during the process.

The olives are then washed. The are sent along a conveyor and jiggled around to remove any dirt and ensure they are perfectly clean before they are crushed and pressed to the oil.

Now is the first step of extracting the oil from the olives. All the olives are crushed and mixed to release the oil from the fruit. This process is called "malaxation", where the mulched olives are churned which allows all the small droplets of oil to release and come together.

This below is the mulched pulpy olive residue which is called 'pomace', this pomace is continuously turned to release as much of the oil contained inside the olives.

After this malaxation the aggregated oil is much easier to separate from the top and the rest is pressed out of the olive pulp. After the press there is some sediment still which remains in the oil. This is often removed by filtering, but can also remain such as in our Unfiltered Olio Nuovo Janaury olive tree adoption delivery. Unfiltered oil has a more rustic and 'olivey' taste as is made to be enjoyed particularly fresh, which is why redeliver ours in January, straight after the harvest.

Here is the pomace along with the olive tree foliage after the first press. Although this may seem like such a waste, all that pulpy olive and leaves, but actually it is used for alternative energy sources and composting. So when extra virgin olive oil production is done well and authentically like this it is a circular and sustainable process.

The final stage now is separating the oil and the water that is in the olives. This done through a centrifuge to separate it, the water is drained away and then the final product flows out. The extra virgin olive oil.

Read about the 2018 Olive Harvest on the Nudo groves >

ADOPT an OLIVE TREE

Adopt an Olive Tree and receive deliveries of fresh extra virgin olive oil from your tree on a small-scale, sustainable olive grove in Italy.

ADOPT AN OLIVE TREE