FROM OUR OLIVE ORCHARDS TO YOUR KITCHEN TABLE.
Single-Source Olive Oil
Phileos produces our single-source olive oil the same way our ancestors did. Hand-picked from Old World trees, pressed in small batches and sent ready for your dinner table.
We include the production date on all of our bottles. Most other olive oil manufacturers use different batches of oli from separate regions and place expiration dates on the label instead of prodution dates. With Phileos, you'll always know exactly when and where your olive oil was made from.
Our olives are always harvested early, starting in October. Once the harvest commences, the ground is surrounded with tarpaulin and netting to capture any olives that have accidentally fallen. We handpick the young green unripe fruit, place it in aerated bins rather than bags to protect its quality, and extract the oil at a low temperature (often called “cold pressing”) less than 4 - 8 hours after picking. No crazy tree-shaking machines used here! Our careful harvest and transportation, immediately followed by our unusually prompt oil production, make our extra virgin olive oil greener and higher in antioxidants, maximizing the high polyphenol content—so that it offers more health benefits and flavour. We immediately store our olive oil in vacuum sealed stainless steel tanks at 14-16 degrees celsius (57 - 61 degrees Fahrenheit) with nitrogen pressure all year long, which further prolongs its freshness and longer shelf life. Our oil is bottled just before the product leaves for markets.
This level of care enables us to maintain our high quality standard as we produce our single source, Protected Geographic Indication (PGI) extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). Phileos EVOO has an acidity level that is consistently 3-4x lower and peroxide values up to 10x lower than required by the standards for extra virgin olive oils. Not to mention 6x-10x times more polyphenols (antioxidants) than the standard grade olive oil available in supermarkets. This means more health benefits and a longer shelf life, with its fresh flavour maintained longer.
Ancient Trees, An Ancient Process
The secret to an excellent olive oil is simplicity. That means starting with the best olives. Most of our trees are hundreds (even thousands) of years old, which means more flavorful fruit. A taste that stands the test of time. Phileos ancient olive trees require two things to thrive: water and sunshine.
Perfectly Balanced for Taste
We use the same olive trees to produce Phileos olive oil as our ancestors did. We mix the Koroneiki (75%) and Athinolia (25%) olive varieties in order to achieve a perfect balance of sweet and sharp taste. These are positive sensory characteristics of a high quality olive oil.
Pressed Directly From The Grove
We treat olives as what they are - fruit. Rather than picking them when they're black and rotten, we gather them at their freshest, hand-picking them right off the tree. It's our way of sharing with the world the way olive oil is supposed to taste.
All of our hand-picked olives go straight to the mill once harvested for pressing. No olives baking in the sun degrading quality or left to mold.
When the olive oil is processed it is immediately stored and then transported from the olive mill to our company's bottling plant for standardisation and quality control with the help of vacuum sealed stainless steel tanks. Stainless steel is by far the best material for olive oil storage because it has no flavour or odour, and is impenetrable by sun or moisture preserving its quality. Once it is delivered to the standardisation facility, it is again stored in stainless steel tanks under controlled temperature conditions with zero relative humidity and simultaneous application of nitrogen.
Afterwards, we filter the olive oil and proceed to its standardisation and packaging, where all procedures are now on fully automated.
Preserving Nutrients and Flavour
Every bottle and tin of Phileos olive oil is cold-pressed to preserve nutrients and taste. That means a low-temperature, slow-churn for hours to get the golden oil from the olive and into a final mesh filter before storing. Many companies will use the remaining pulp as a second press to get another round of (less tasty) oil. We stick with a single press and recycle the rest into fuel pellets for local Greeks or feed it back into the soil of our trees as a nutrient.
Stored and Shipped for Freshness
When it comes to olive oil, freshness is the most important factor. Time and sunlight degrade the oil like nothing else, breaking down antioxidants and robbing the oil of its flavour. That's why we bottle all of our olive oil in ultra-dark or BPA free tin cans in order to protect it from light and preserve its taste and quality. Phileos ships its oil in climate controlled containers to prevent oxidation. And because we only sell the most current harvest, you can always expect the freshest oil possible, straight from the tree to your table.
The PHILEOS EVOO Process More In-Depth
The olive oil treatment includes the collection of olives, their washing, grinding, kneading, the receipt and finally the cleaning of the produced olive oil. Our process is outlined below.
Receipt of olives: Following their harvest, olives are delivered to the processing plants. Their transfer is made in plastic crates and baskets with holes for ventilation. Their process is effectuated as soon as possible, i.e. within 8 hours.
Removal of leaves, impurities and washing: Foreign substances, if ground along with the olives, adversely affect the scent of olive oil and increase its acidity. Therefore, olive are initially placed in the olives receipt funnel and then in the leaves remover for the removal of leaves and other substances. Then they are washed for the removal of foreign substances (mud, earth, dust, dirt).
Grinding of olives: in modern facilities grinding is effectuated by hammer mills or grinders. Kneading of the olive paste: Following grinding, the olive paste is mixed in the kneader (stainless tanks with double walls heated with warm water circulation, the temperature of which shall not exceed 25.6 C).
Kneading is a principal stage of process: it usually lasts 30 minutes and contributes to the consolidation of small olive oil droplets with bigger ones.
Olive oil extraction: The receipt of olive oil is made with two process methods: the two-phase and three-phase process with the use of modern centrifugation machines that can separate olive oil from olive paste without adding water. In this way there is not liquid waste (sewage), as they are integrated in the olive husk, which therefore it contains more humidity in relation to that produced in three-phase process.
Centrifugation: The olive oil is separated by the olive hush (wherein sewage is integrated) with the influence of centrifugal force which increases the specific weight difference between olive oil and liquid olive husk. The process is effectuated with centrifugal separator with horizontal spindle. The centrifugal force coefficient (G) is bigger in two-phase systems (3000 – 3600) than in three-phase systems (2000 – 2600). The olive oil extracted by two-phase decanter, may contain small solid particles, which are however removed with the use of reciprocating screens.
Olive oil cleaning: The last stage of olive oil production comprises its cleaning from solid particles (pieces of pulp, peel, particles of olive nucleus etc.) that are dissolved in the liquid. These particles’ weight is calculated to be 0.5 – 1% of the total weight during liquid stage and they are removed with the use of reciprocating screens (defecation screens). Finally, it follows the separation of olive oil from vegetal liquids with the use of centrifugation separators and the final product is stored in stainless tanks.
