To splurge or not to splurge? That’s NOT the question!
Purchasing a good quality extra virgin olive oil is always money well spent. Here’s why:
EVOO costs much more to produce and is accepted as being the best quality oil available; as such it commands a higher retail price. Olive oil is generally an expensive product since the small fruit is grown on large trees under specific Mediterranean – type climatic conditions. Trees take long to come into full production, trees bear relatively poorly and usually only every second year. Harvesting is normally done by hand, which is costly and labour intensive. The fruit yields, on average, about 16% oil, and requires specialised imported (and expensive) stainless steel machinery to extract the oil from the fruit efficiently.
EVOO is, according to international legislation, the highest quality grade of olive oil available. Genuine EVOO involves good care and high levels of management all along the process from growing, harvesting, handling, extraction, decanting to packaging and storage.
Cheaper grades of olive oil are therefore of poorer quality, and cheap EVOOs are suspect. You normally get what you pay for.
Look out for our CTC Seal of approval, to ensure you are buying the very best locally produced EVOOs, and choose with confidence.
