OLIVE OIL

Nothing is more closely associated with Greek cooking than Greece’s delicious, excellent olive oil. Most (more than 80%) Greek olive oil is extra virgin by nature. The country’s predominant oil is the small Koroneiki variety known for its health benefits. Most groves are small and family-owned, which means that farmers tend to their trees, harvest their fruits, and extract their oil with great care.

MAIN OLIVE OIL PRODUCING REGIONS

PELOPONNESE

Olive oil from the Peloponnese is made predominantly from the Koroneiki olive, which imparts a deeply herbaceous tone to its oil. Unblended olive oil from the southern Peloponnese, Kalamata and the Mani, when made with pure Koroneiki olives, tends to be robust, with plenty of grassy tones, and lightly flavored with the taste of bitter almond skins and spicy pepper.

 

CRETE

Crete leads the islands in production and international exports, and accounts for a large portion of total Greek olive oil production. The Koroneiki variety of olive dominates, as it does on the mainland, but there are some local varieties, such as Tsounati in Chania, Throumbalia in Rethymnon, and Hondrolia in Heraklion, and the taste and flavors of the oils are quite varied.

 

LESVOS

An island in the northeastern Aegean with approximately 87,000 inhabitants, Lesvos is home to 11 million olive trees, or about 126 trees per inhabitant. Almost one third of the island’s entire land mass is planted with olive trees. The trees are generally of two local olive varieties, the Kolovi, which accounts for 65% of production, and the Adramytiani, which accounts for about 30%. The island of Lesvos is Greece’s most important olive oil producing region after the Peloponnese and Crete. The oil produced here tends to be a lighter, almost golden color, and not the emerald green color typical of Cretan and Peloponnese oils. It is light on the palate, with a mildly herbaceous aroma.