Early Harvest Olive Oil Health Benefits
Typically, the olive harvest begins at the end of November, and lasts until mid-January.
The olives collected during this period are already quite ripe, juicy and, when pressed, produce a fragrant and soft olive oil.
However, there is also something we call an early harvest olive oil.
What is the difference?
An early crop is harvested at the beginning of October.
These olives are hard, and just starting to darken at this time.
The oil yield from such olives is much lower thus the resulting olive oil is more expensive than olive oil made from olives harvested at the usual time.
You can tell the difference between this olive oil and an ordinary one not only by its taste, but also by its smell.
Early harvest olive oil aroma is always sharp and intense.
All early harvest olive oils have a common feature – they are so bitter and peppery that you will cough after swallowing some.
Still, the range of flavours may be different, as this depends on the variety, or blend of olives.
Don’t use this kind of olive oil with fresh vegetable salads, because it will dominate and completely kill the taste of the meal.
Early harvest olive oil is the best olive oil for finishing such dishes as a juicy steak, or grilled fish.
It’s also worth noting another important side of early harvest olive oil – its health benefits.
Olive oils produced from early harvested olives contain a record-high number of polyphenols and vitamin E.
For example, regular extra virgin olive oil contains about 150-200 mg of polyphenols per kg, while the number of polyphenols in early harvest olive oil is more than 500 mg per kg.
Moreover, early harvest olive oils always have a lower acidity: about 0.2 %, compared to the usual range of 0.4-0.6 % acidity in regular harvest olive oils.
Here we can review some early harvest olive oils from our collection:
Organic extra virgin early harvest olive oils DEORTEGAS.
The Deortegas family produces single variety early harvest olive oil Arbequina, Cornicabra, Picual, Frantoio and Hojiblanca.
Early Harvest Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil: PROTOLEO, AEGAEA & AEGAEA BIO.
These olive oils from the Greek island of Lesbos have a subtle, mild taste at the beginning and strong finish.
Organic extra virgin unfiltered early harvest olive oil SOPOTNIK.
The Sopotnik family produce an excellent organic olive oil in Portoroz, Slovenia.
This unfiltered early harvest olive oil has powerful fruity taste and intense aroma. Like any unfiltered olive oil, it cannot be stored for a long time after opening, just a few weeks.
Extra virgin early harvest olive oil VANJA COUVEE.
This premium olive oil, created by the famous oil-maker Vanja Dujc is a blend of 16 varieties of olives. Olive oil VANJA COUVEE has a lot of prestigious awards from International fairs and competitions, including "The Best Olive Oil In The Northern Hemisphere - 2021".
These are some more early harvest olive oils you can find in our web-store.
Try, enjoy and share with us your impressions!
