Olive Oil Reviews: Greek Olive Oil

by Editor on February 1, 2010

In this post I am not going to talk about the benefits of olive oil as in most of the other posts so far and I am going to start instead a new chapter on this blog, that is, the review of various

Greeks harvesting olives

Greeks harvesting olives

types of olive oils. My aim is to provide my numerous readers (thanks again for all the support emails!) verified information to be more informed on which olive oil they should buy to enjoy the best health benefits of olive oil.

I am going to start this chapter with Greek olive oil, and discuss some of the varieties of such a great producer. One question many of the readers have asked me is: can you get good Greek olive oil online? The answer is yes. One thing that I have pointed out in one of my previous posts on Italian vs. Spanish vs. Greek olive oil is that much of the Italian and other olive oil you consume is already partially or entirely from Greece – look for the telltale “GR” under “Country of Origin”.  However,  you know that not all the olive oils you buy at the supermarket would ever make my kitchen so keep reading for more details!

Tassos Greek Olive Oil

Tassos olive oil  comes from Crete and is one of the best oils from outside of Greece. This is a greenish-tinged oil which is rich but has a smooth flavor.  For a long time, it was only available on line in a massive three-liter container. It can be used for dipping, salads, cooking, and baking. More recently it is also available in smaller quantities -as well as olives, honeys, spreads and even as feta stuffed marinated red peppers – directly from the manufacturer’s website, Tassos.com.

Liohori Olive Oil

Another great Cretan olive oils. It is available at a good price in three-liter tin

cretan-olive-oil-benefits

Cretan olive oils

Taste of Crete Olive Oil

This extra-virgin olive oil comes from the area of Sitia in the northeastern part of Crete, rich in Minoan ruins and kept cool by breezes -and sometimes winds- blowing across the Aegean sea. Made from Koroneki olives, this is a milder, reasonably-priced oil.

Aegean Kalamata Olive Oil

Though Kalamata olives are known for their unique, strong flavor, the olive oils themselves are not as spicy. A large three-liter metal can supplies you with extra-virgin olive oil for a few meals at least.

Kalamata Olive Oils

If the average consumer knows one word of Greek in conjunction with olives, it is probably “Kalamata”, the term for the strong, pointy, purple-colored olives often served at Greek restaurants worldwide. However, Kalamata olive oil is not purple, as a bottle of any of these olive oils will prove.

With this traditional olive oil I conclude on my first post trying to explore the different types of olive oils available on the net. For each olive oil I am going to talk about, I will have talked with the producer and often tasted my self the oil to make sure that all the olive oil benefits I have talked about are embodied in the various oils. Every now and then, I will also talk about olives and other olive products to make sure you can have more olive benefits and taste in your kitchen and life in general!

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Susanna February 1, 2010 at 5:37 pm

Hi Vito,
Over the last 2 years I have started using olive oil having heard so much about its health benefits. I have bought Greek olive oil in the past and found its taste very similat to the Italian and french olive oil. Now I can see from your blog that there are various types of greek olive oil (how naive I was to talk just about Greek olive oil!!). I would like to try some olive oil that is more tasty than the one I currently buy from my Tesco supermarket in London. Can you please suggest what I should do?
Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge!

Frank Singh February 25, 2010 at 9:57 am

Hi! Thanks for sharing the advices on the Greek olive oil, I looked on the internet for websites selling the olive oils you suggested but I could not find much! I am intrigued by the Taste of Crete olive oil…your description sounds amazing! Can you please suggest a good place where to buy this olive oil?
I have read youf blog posts about the olive oil benefits and I am so convinced that I need to move to good olive oil! The 7 reasons you are mentioning here http://www.all-about-olive-oil.com/benefits-of-olive-oil-7-reasons are something everybody should care about! Thanks and please let me know!

Leave a Comment

Spam protection by WP Captcha-Free

Previous post: