What happens between the tree and your kitchen makes all the difference.
You buy a bottle of olive oil, pour a splash into the pan, and don’t think much about it. Understandable. But what happens between the olive tree and your kitchen completely determines whether you buy a product with real nutritional value—or an industrial fat that just happens to smell like olive oil.
In this article, we take you through the entire production process of extra virgin olive oil. From the harvest in the Mediterranean sun to the bottle that arrives at your home. And we explain why every step matters.
Everything starts with the olive tree
Olive trees grow slowly and live long. Some trees in the Mediterranean are hundreds of years old and still produce fruit. They thrive in a dry, sunny climate with cool winters, exactly the conditions found in Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal.
The quality of the oil starts long before the harvest. The variety of the olive, the soil composition, the climate of that year, and how the trees are maintained: these are all factors that influence the taste and composition of the final oil. That is why origin is so important, and why "Mediterranean olives from the EU" is not just marketing talk but a real quality guarantee.
The harvest: timing is everything
Olives are harvested in the fall, usually between October and December. The exact timing of the harvest has a huge impact on the oil.
Early harvested olives, still green or light purple in color, contain more polyphenols and a higher concentration of antioxidants. The oil is more intense in flavor, fruitier, and has a lower acidity. Later harvested, fully ripe olives yield more oil per kilo of fruit but with a milder taste and slightly fewer polyphenols.
For high-quality EVOO, early harvesting is deliberately chosen. Less oil per tree, but more quality per drop.
The harvest itself is done in two ways. With manual picking or combing, the olives are carefully removed from the branches by hand or with special combs. This is labor-intensive but barely damages the fruit. With mechanical shaking, machines shake the branches so the olives fall into nets on the ground. Faster, but with a slightly higher chance of fruit damage.
What is essential in both cases: the olives must be taken to the mill as quickly as possible after harvesting. The longer they sit, the higher the acidity rises and the more the quality declines.
From olive to mill: the first hours are crucial
In good olive oil production, the harvested olives go to the mill within 24 hours. Some producers even aim for the same day. This is no exaggeration: after harvesting, a fermentation process begins in the fruit that increases acidity and negatively affects the flavor.
Upon arrival at the mill, the olives are first washed and de-leafed. Then the actual production process begins.
The first cold pressing: how does it work?
"First cold pressing" is the term you see on a good bottle of EVOO. But what does it mean concretely?
First pressing means the oil is extracted from the first mechanical processing of the olives. There is no second pressing with extra pressure or heat to extract more oil from the residue. What you get is the purest, most nutritious fraction.
Cold pressing means the process takes place without heating. The temperature during pressing remains below 27°C. Above that temperature, polyphenols and aroma compounds begin to break down. Cold pressing means: all flavor, all nutrients, everything preserved.
The process itself takes place in three steps. First, the olives are finely ground into a thick paste, including pit and skin. Then the paste is slowly kneaded so that the small oil droplets clump together into larger droplets. Finally, the oil is separated from the pulp and water by centrifugation. No heat. No chemicals. Purely mechanical.
What comes out of the centrifuge is extra virgin olive oil in its purest form.
What makes it EXTRA virgin?
Extra virgin is the highest quality grade of olive oil, and to carry that name, the oil must meet strict criteria.
The acidity must be a maximum of 0.8%. This acidity indicates the condition of the olives at pressing: the lower, the healthier the fruit was and the faster it was processed. HANT olive oil measures 0.33%, well below that limit.
In addition, real EVOO must show no flavor defects. A panel of trained tasters evaluates each batch blindly: fruity, bitter, and pungent are good qualities, while musty, rancid, or fermented are grounds for exclusion.
And finally: the oil must be obtained entirely mechanically. As soon as heat or chemicals are involved, you lose the right to the extra virgin label.
What happens during industrial refining?
For comparison, it is useful to understand what happens with regular supermarket olive oil.
When olives are overripe, damaged, or fermented, the acidity is too high for extra virgin. Instead of rejecting those olives, they are processed through industrial refining: the oil is heated, treated with chemicals, deodorized, and bleached. What remains is a neutral, tasteless fat without polyphenols, antioxidants, or biological activity.
To add a bit of flavor and color afterward, a small amount of real extra virgin olive oil is added. This allows the product to be sold as "olive oil" or even "virgin" in stores, even though most of it is refined. This is exactly what happens behind the scenes with many commercial brands. And it is exactly what HANT does not do.
From mill to bottle: storage and bottling
After pressing, the oil is temporarily stored in stainless steel tanks, in the dark and at a controlled temperature. Light, heat, and oxygen are the three biggest enemies of olive oil: they accelerate oxidation and damage the polyphenols.
Good olive oil is bottled in dark glass bottles. Not as a marketing choice, but as a functional necessity. A clear bottle may look nicer on a store shelf, but it is detrimental to the oil’s shelf life and quality.
After bottling, the bottle is labeled with all relevant information: origin of the olives, pressing method, acidity, certification, and expiration date. At HANT, we add independent lab analyses, publicly accessible to everyone.
How to use and store EVOO at home?
You’ve bought a good bottle. Now you want to preserve that quality at home.
Store your olive oil in a dark, cool place, away from the stove. A cupboard or drawer is better than a rack next to the stove. Once opened, use the bottle preferably within two to three months.
For cold use such as dressings, dips, or drizzled over a dish: feel free to use generously. Here all polyphenols and aromas come fully into their own.
For warm use: EVOO is perfectly suitable for frying or sautéing up to about 180 to 200°C. Above that temperature, polyphenols start to break down. For very high heat or prolonged frying, it’s better to choose another fat.
And pure from the spoon? Absolutely. A tablespoon in the morning has been a daily ritual in Mediterranean traditions for generations.
How HANT olive oil is made
HANT Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is pressed in Italy from carefully selected Mediterranean olives, Greek and Italian varieties, grown within the EU. Obtained solely by mechanical means during the first cold pressing, without heat or chemicals. Acidity: 0.33%.
No additives. No mixing with refined oil. No oil from outside the EU. Certified organic (IT-BIO-007).
All lab analyses are publicly available, not behind a form, not on request, just online for everyone to see. Because we believe in our quality and have nothing to hide.