Crete Olive Oil Tour
To learn more about olives and olive oil on Crete, Greece Travel Secrets visits
Biolea, one of the few olive oil factories on Crete that you can tour.
Panoramic View from the Biolea Olive Oil Factory on Crete
All Photos (c) Mike Gerrard
Biolea is one of the few olive oil manufacturers in Crete
that you can visit. So we did, thanks to Isidoros, our tour guide from www.GoCrete.net. Outside the factory we are
greeted by our Biolea factory guide, Chloe Dimitriadis.
'Last week when it rained,' she says, 'the trees were happy
as it was the first rain for four months.'
It was hard to believe it had rained so recently, as when we
arrived in late September it was gloriously hot with temperatures into the low 90s
(32-34C). It's not the kind of weather when you would normally do a factory
tour, but this was no normal factory.
Chloe welcomes us and explains that while Biolea may be a modern factory, they still use a traditional stone press to make their olive oil.
'Crete has one of the biggest concentrations of olive trees
in the whole Mediterranean,' she tells us. 'We make 5% of the olive oil in the
world, and Greece is 3rd in the world for olive oil production after Spain and
Italy. They've been making olive oil here since Neolithic times.
'The average person in Greece consumes 32 litres of olive
oil a year, which is twice as much as in Italy.'
After this explanation of facts and figures, Chloe moves on
to what everyone in the small tour group wants to know: How to make sure you
get good quality olive oil when you buy.
Buying Good Quality
Olive Oil
'First look for the word virgin,' Chloe explains. 'By EU
laws this is 100% pure olive oil. If it doesn't say virgin, stay away. Extra
virgin is the same thing, 100% olive oil, but with lower acidity. Extra virgin
isn't necessarily better than virgin. There are other factors.
'You must also look for cold-pressed, which means it is done
below 27 degrees and hasn't been burned. If you blast it with heat you get bigger
quantities but you lose the health content. Even if you go over 30 degrees you
start to lose qualities.'
Chloe knows so much about olive oil because it was her
father who started the factory about 25 years ago, although the family has been making olive oil in the village of Astrikas for several generations.
'He was one of the first to become organic at the time when
everyone was going industrial,' she says. 'Everyone thought he was crazy!'
Chloe explains that they have about 3,000 olive trees in
their village, and it takes two months to harvest them. They put nets down on
the ground and beat the tree branches with electronic beaters to shake the
olives loose. They then get them to the factory as fast as they can, for the
ultimate freshness.
She then leads us inside the factory where we see the
modern-looking machine that presses the olives, with three large stone presses
inside it. The machine works in the traditional way, but eliminates the need to
have donkeys trudging around to turn the stones.
One of the hardest things, Chloe tells us, is keeping
everything clean.
'We're an organic factory so don't use any chemical cleaners.
It's all done with hot water and pressure – and olive paste is very hard to get
off!'
Another tip Chloe passes on to us is to store olive oil
either in dark glass or a tin, and to avoid plastic bottles.
Flavoured Olive Oil
As well as producing their natural stone-milled cold-pressed
estate olive oil, Biolea also makes two flavoured olive oils, lemonio and
nerantzio. These are done by throwing in the peel from lemons or bitter oranges
when they mill the olives. At the tasting we do after the tour, both the lemon
and the orange olive oil are huge hits. They're tangy and aromatic, and
everyone wants to buy at least one bottle of each.
The company produces about 20,000 litres of olive oil a
year, and the production sells out by about March. They could make more but,
like many of the food and wine makers we met on Crete, they go for quality over
quantity. They use all their own olives, and only buy any in if they have a bad
harvest. Even then, they will only buy organic olives from farmers who they are
sure know what they're doing.
Know Your Olive Oil
Chloe then gives us another reason why it's important to
know exactly what you're buying: '80% of Cretan olive oil is exported in bulk
in containers to Italy where they blend it with olive oil from Tunisia, Spain
and other countries. It's therefore possible that the Italian olive oil you buy
in the supermarket is blended and has Cretan olive oil in it. If it was blended
and bottled in Italy then it can be called Italian olive oil, no matter where
the olives came from.'
Where to Find Biolea Olive Oil
Biolea exports 70-80% of its own production, so if you're
not lucky enough to visit the factory in its idyllic setting surrounded by
olive trees and mountains, in Astrikas, west of Chania, where can you buy their
organic olive oil?
'We don't have a distributor in the UK,' Chloe says, 'but we
work with a shop in London, The Isle of Olive. Our
biggest market is Japan, then the USA and Canada, and some European countries
too.'
Where to Stay on Crete
Rent a Car on Crete
Other Crete pages
Chania is the main city in Western Crete with a lovely setting and a beautiful harbour as well as several museums.
Crete (Kriti) is the largest Greek island and its main attractions include the Minoan Palace of Knossos, the Samarian Gorge, Chania and Rethymnon.
Greece Travel Secrets visits the Crete Botanical Gardens near Chania and finds a wonderland of colourful plants, trees, and flowers filling a lovely valley.
Crete's capital and largest city is Irakleio, also called Iraklion or Heraklion, a large and busy place with good restaurants, museums and historical buildings.
The Greece Travel Secrets guide to Greek grape varieties to help you know which wines to choose when dining in restaurants or buying wine in Greece.
Greek food and drink is a highlight of any visit and Greece Travel Secrets brings you info about food and drink from all over Greece, from Athens to Zakynthos.
If you're wondering where to eat in Athens and Piraeus we have a few suggestions including some favorites around the Acropolis, Omonia Square, and Syntagma.
Greece Travel Secrets’ potted guide to Eastern Crete and why you should consider it for a holiday, including seeing Agios Nikolaos, Sitia, Vai Beach and Zakros.
Driving on Crete is the best way to see Greece’s biggest island and here is our driving advice and some information about Greek driving regulations.
These shopping tips for Crete include advice on buying souvenirs like ceramics, icons, jewellery, leather, weavings, wood carvings, and food and drink.
How to see eastern Crete in five days, with its beaches, Minoan palaces, timeless villages, unique churches and mountain and coastal scenery.
Malia on the north coast of Crete is renowned for its nightlife and beaches but also has the Minoan Palace of Malia, one of Crete's many archaeological sites.
Greece Travel Secrets page on Phaistos or Faistos, the site of one of the finest Minoan palaces on Crete and is where the mysterious Phaistos Disc was found.
Sir Arthur Evans is the archaeologist famous for the excavations he made at the royal palace of Knossos on Crete.
Visiting Knossos near Iraklion is one of the best things to do on Crete, and this page has a history of the site with visitor information.
What was daily life as a Minoan like on Crete, living in palaces like the ones at Knossos, Malia, Phaistos, and Zakros, and what were their religious beliefs?
Is someone from Crete a Greek or a Cretan? They are both, of course, but most will tell you that they are Cretan first and Greek second.
Driving central Crete in three days gives you time to see the highlights including the Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, the beaches and the Diktean Cave.
Matala Beach on Crete is a guest blog for Greece Travel Secrets from the We Love Crete website, inviting you to Awaken Your Inner Hippy in Matala, Crete.
Agios Nikolaos is a pretty and popular town on the north coast of Crete and this page on Greece Travel Secrets covers its history, museums and beaches.
Elounda on Crete's north coast is a popular holiday town with a pretty harbour, from where you can take day trips by boat to see the island of Spinalonga.
Cretan music is part of the island’s soul and visitors will hear live music wherever they go, with several distinctive Cretan musical instruments and songs.
Western Crete in five days allows time to visit Chania and Rethymnon, enjoy the beaches, hike the Samaria Gorge and see the monasteries at Arkadi and Preveli.
Crete’s wildlife and landscape are two of the island’s attractions, including gorges for hiking, rare raptors like the lammergeier, wildcats and ancient trees.
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