The Day Olive Oil Stopped Being Just Oil
How a village in Sardinia changed the way we taste, cook, and think about olive oil forever.
For years, olive oil was simply there for us. Something you buy in a supermarket. Something you cook with, mostly actually something we used for salad dressings and no more.
For years we had been using what most people use: “good” olive oil from regular stores, bottles with Italian labels and comforting words like extra vergine. We cared deeply about food, cooked a lot at home, chose quality ingredients whenever possible. And still — we had no idea.
Sardinia, Autumn 2018
When we visited Sardinia for the second time in 2018, we visited a local festival called "Autunno in Barbagia" , a week-end when local producers, cellars and farms open their doors by telling their stories and showing their products. A unique chance to get to know the producers first hand.
In Oliena, home of Pane Carasau, Nepente di Oliena and the Nera di Oliena olive — we met Giovanna and the producers behind Olioliena.
It was their first year presenting their olive oil publicly. They spoke about it proudly, as if it were the best olive oil in the world. And then we tasted it: It was fresh, alive, vibrant green. It felt like drinking a freshly pressed juice with aromas that we had never had before: freshly cut grass, almonds and unripe artichokes. And it was slightly bitter with a delicate pungent in the finish.
Ilio - for this was the name of the olive oil that soon became the favourite of our friends and customers - was a completely different category of oil. It felt like out of this world, and made everything we had ever had before just look pale.
A Taste — and a Beginning
What happened next wasn’t just about olive oil. It was something closer to friendship at first sight. A moment of trust, curiosity, and shared values that quietly took root there, in Oliena, in autumn 2018.
We didn't just take the oil home with us. We also took the memories, the story, and the spirit. Back home, we told friends, neighbours, colleagues, with such passion and dedication that they loved the stories, and the the oil even more.
That first privately placed order - a rather large box of cans and bottles - was shared among the people around us that loved the oil so much. And soon, we were ordering again, and again, while hearing everyone saying the same thing:
“Whatever olive oil we used before…it wasn’t this.”
Curiosity Turns Into Passion
The olive oil from Olioliena opened our appetite for more: not just in terms of quantity, but understanding as well
We started asking ourselves questions:
- Why does this oil taste so different?
- What is a monovarietal?
- Why do some oils burn slightly in the throat?
- What are polyphenols?
- Why is a product with such high amounts of fat considered healthy?
- Why do some oils feel gentle, others intense?
Suddenly, olive oil wasn’t one thing anymore. It was so many things. And we noticed something essential: Many of the oils that left a lasting impression on us came from producers who:
- work closely with their land and trees
- harvest with attention and timing
- integrate sustainability into their daily practices
- focus on expression and identity rather than volume
Food, health and longevity
Around the same time, we discovered the Seven Countries Study, which highlighted high olive oil consumption as a key factor in the low incidence of coronary disease.
Later came the Blue Zones — five regions in the world with unusually high longevity rates. Sardinia was one of them, with Barbagia (where Oliena is contained) being the first of them all.
It was the moment curiosity turned into passion. This wasn’t just about taste anymore, but about health, culture, people and life.
Where We Are Today
Four years later, that first taste in Oliena has shaped everything we do.
Today, we work with five producers in Italy. From northern Italy to the islands and the south, we feature cherished Italian olive varieties such as:
Grignano, Bosana, Coratina, Peranzana, Picholine, Frantoio, Caninese, Leccino.
Every time we travel to Italy, we make time to visit our producers. We walk their land and see their trees. We watch their harvest, and look over the shoulder when they press. We watch, we listen, we learn.
Along the way, and speaking to our producers, we’ve realized something else:
There is an incredible amount of bad information about olive oil out there.
So we started reading: Books, articles,studies. We started to watch, listen and taste more. We talked to producers and experts.
And everything we’ve learned, we want to share with you.
Why We Started This Journal
We are not certified authorities, nor scientists, and we certainly didn’t set out to become olive oil influencers.
Our starting point has always been curiosity: tasting often, listening carefully, and spending time with people who have devoted their lives to olive oil.
Along the way, we felt a growing desire to share the stories of the unique producers we encountered, and the tasting experiences that stayed with us — products and people that would otherwise probably never make it onto many tables. We wanted to help make olive oil more understandable: what it really is, how to use it, and which qualities are worth paying attention to.
This journal is where we share what surprised us, what we got wrong at first, what reshaped our understanding — and why olive oil deserves more attention than it usually gets.
