Greek (mostly Cretan) olive oil

Thanks, Palαύρα. You predicted well (or knew well) the way my mind works. The words of the song were (refreshingly) easy to understand. I must be getting somewhere. Lexilogia has done so much for me--from all angles including the best olive oil. I can't get kolymbari here in Gloucester but I got a prizewinning bottle from the Peloponnese this morning on amazon. Αυτό το προϊόν δε συγκρίνεται.:up::)
 

SBE

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If you go to your local Turkish or Arabic grocer, they will have Kolymvari (note the spelling). It seems to be a staple in those shops, but I don't know if you have Arabic or Turkish grocers in Gloucester.
 
Thanks, SBE We don't have either a Turkish or Arabic store in Gloucester but the supermarkets have "ethnic" food shelves so i'll look there. The of spelling of Kolymvari was an error on my part because I actually read an article on the subject. This article said that the Terra Creta estate was located between the Samaria Gorge and the beaches of Kolymvari.
Until I get a bottle or tin —at present unavailable online— I'll have to be content with, here is the advert!, my "2017 GOLD Medal Winner PJ KABOS 500ml Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil, born in Ancient Olympia vicinity, Greece, KORONEIKI Variety, 500ml glass bottle":):)
 

daeman

Administrator
Staff member
...
Well, the actual pronunciation is Kolymbari (or Kolybari; let's not get into that again) since no local would ever pronounce or write it Kolymvari (Κολυμβάρι) outside of dusty or "official" texts.

Like no native speaker would say κολυμβώ for κολυμπώ (or κολυμπάω, frequently) when speaking naturally.

A bonus word for you, Theseus, in the Cretan dialect: η κολύμπα = pool, pond, puddle

Also found as a masculine noun: κόλυμπος.

Τση Νύφης ο Κόλυμπος

Ο σχετικός θρύλος λέγει, ότι νύμφη τις κάποτε και επνίγη εις τα πολλά ύδατα του κολύμπου (περί της λέξ. βλ. VI, 8) εν ώ διήρχετο απ' εκεί με την γαμήλιον πομπήν, διότι δεν ήθελε τον γαμβρόν. Ο Κόλυμπος ωνομάσθη έκτοτε εις ανάμνησιν του γεγονότος ούτω.
Πρβλ. Και του Βατσέλ(λ)η η Κολύμπα. 

Χατζιδάκις, Ν. Ε. (1938)
http://repository.kentrolaografias.gr/xmlui/browse?value=Χατζιδάκις,+Ν.+Ε.&type=author
 
Thanks, 'Man. What does Βατσέλη mean? A basin or bowl? Or is it here the name of a place? BTW, thanks for the information on Kolymbari/ Kolybari.
 

daeman

Administrator
Staff member
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The whole phrase "του Βατσέλ(λ)η η Κολύμπα" is a placename, most probably based on someοne's name, as indicated by the genitive του Βατσέλη (ο / η / το whatever) preceding the noun as in Τση Νύφης ο Κόλυμπος.
 

SBE

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Theseus, I don't know where I went wrong and confused you, but I did not mention Terra Creta at all. I was referring to this olive oil which is relatively easy to find in the UK in bottles and in tins:



Of course the region of Kolymbari (note the spelling) is home to many brands of olive oil, but Kolymvari Gold (note the spelling) is the one that I am told is an excellent balance of product and price and is used by a lot of Greek food professionals in the UK.
I am aware of Terra Creta and other designer-y offerings that have surfaced in recent years, but as I said before I don't buy olive oil and I therefore have no opinion on what they taste like. Perhaps they are worth the price premium. So by all means, do try them. But the one most Greeks in the UK use is the one pictured above, and there must be a reason for this.

P.S. I hope this has also clarified the name situation with Daeman. I was referring to the brand name, not the place.
 
Thanks again, SBE. I will look out for the bottle when I'm next in Tesco's. I thought that the brand you mentioned with that name was made in Crete at the family oil press of Terra Creta. Thanks for the help to 'Man as well.:)
 

daeman

Administrator
Staff member
...PS I hope this has also clarified the name situation with Daeman. I was referring to the brand name, not the place.

It was clear right from the start, dear. I know that brand although I never buy olive oil. Got my own. :-)

Theseus, in many newfangled brands you pay the brand, their fancy words and packaging, while the actual product may come from the same source as non-fancy, common ones, as was the case with one of the most expensive Greek brands launched some years ago in the US where it was sold at exorbitant prices (around 100 USD per litre, or more) in small designer bottles and fancy packaging aimed at the NY upscale market, and later proved to be just regular -albeit virgin- olive oil that cost less than 5 euros per litre in market prices, let alone wholesale straight from the producers. And since olive oil is certainly a matter of taste preference, it's best to try various brands and see what suits your taste buds without emptying your pockets. Kolymvari is good and fairly priced, so you can start with that as a staple and explore further.
 

SBE

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I have no idea whether Terra Creta comes from the same firm. All I know is that a lot of Cretan olive oil comes from that region, and there is even a Kolymvari olive oil PDO (similar to the one wines get), which covers the olive oil produced by members of the agricultural cooperatives of Chania, so there are a lot of brands of olive oil that include the name of the region. I don’t know how you imagine olive oil is produced, but I can tell you how we do it in our village: around December you hire workmen (the number of workmen depends on the size of your land), and you agree to pay them a set fee per day, plus meals plus olive oil or whatever else. You take your olive nets out of storage and you have them pick the olives and you take the sacks of olives to the olive press where you negotiate payment in either cash or a percentage of olive oil. You oversee the process, to ensure that they start up with clean machinery with no leftovers from the previous client and that the oil that comes out of the other end is poured into your containers. You pay and take your containers away. One olive press is enough for the whole region, which includes about seven oil producing villages. They are busy for about two months a year. As far as I know, olive presses belong to the agricultural cooperative. I have never heard of a press that belongs to a bottling factory, but of course there may be some. The oil needs to settle for a few days, don’t know why, but apparently we don’[FONT=&quot][/FONT]t use it straightaway. In the meantime, the workmen clean up the land and prune the trees for next year. The wood is chopped and stored or sold for firewood. And that’s all that one needs to do until next year. Because we harvest every two years, the next year we pay someone to prune the trees again. And that’s it. Olive trees are low maintenance and require no treatment during the year. And if, like us, you do not use any pesticides or fertilisers, you don’t need to pay anyone to apply them. We have about 20 old trees and they produce more than we can use and give away in a year. The quality is excellent (the olive press test it and certify it, so we know for certain it is extra virgin), the colour and taste is first class and there is no need to buy. Our only problem is storage. I don’t know anyone with 10,000 trees, but I am sure there are some, but even then, most olive oils come from cooperatives and people buy them in bulk and bottle them. I don’t think there are many that are wholly family-owned (trees and bottling factory). I know nothing about Terra Creta, but I would not be surprised if I found out that it is a business that buys olive oil in bulk from various produces of the Kolymvari PDO and had it bottled at some bottling facility. There is nothing immoral or illegal about that, and anyone can put what appears to be a nice back story on their bottles (after all, there is an Italian pencil maker who claims to have been founded in the 1400s, and another one who claims its notebooks were used by Matisse and VanGogh, but had to admit this was just marketing speak).

You can read more about Greek PDO products here.
 

SBE

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P.S. I just had a look at the corporate website of Terra Creta and it is definitely not a family that harvests and produces and bottles its own olive oil from its own family olive grove. It is a company that buys from several producers and is run like a modern factory, as one would expect from a company with intentions of this scale. I am sorry to ruin this for you, but it’s the same with most agricultural products in Greece. The feta we buy in the shops is not produced the way my great uncle made his own feta at home, by milking his two goats that were roaming freely in his fields and using his kitchen utensils. Its all done in highly sanitized facilities, using large-scale methods that ensure consistency and hygiene.
 

SBE

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Not really. All you need to do is try before you buy. And if you can't it doesn't mean there will be a problem. Lidl in the UK used to stock a Greek olive oil (we are discussing EVOO, so I won't keep repeating it, all else is suitable for engines, not humans), which I bought once when I ran out and it was very good (the more expensive one, they also have a cheaper Greek olive oil, too, but I haven't tried it).
A friend bought Sainsbury's own brand Greek EVOO and it tasted bitter. Very bitter. We threw it away. I think it must have been stored badly. Or anyway, something had happened to it. And I have seen bottles of olive oil on sunny shelves in British supermarkets and crionged. Olive oil should be kept in a dark place, otherwise it becomes rancid. And I think that bad storage is a very common problem in the UK and you can see olive oil that has changed colour due to bad storage being on the shelves and sold to people who know nothing about it.
So first of all look for a dark green glass bottle or a tin. Not a transparent bottle. If you buy a tin, then decant it into a glass bottle once opened. At home store your bottle in a dark place (and the bottle you decant it into does not have to be dark, since it is kept in a dark place).
Then, first of all avoid Elais (owned by Unilever) and their engine oils. They may be big, very big, but I don't know anybody who buys their stuff in Greece. Maybe people who know nothing of good olive oil (unlike their long-running tv ad that goes "I am from X and I know how to distinguish good olive oil" where X is some olive oil producing region, είμαι από την Καλαμάτα και ξέρω να ξεχωρίζω το καλό λάδι etc etc).
Then avoid supermarket own brands unless you are certain that they have been stored appropriately. Lidl stores them appropriately, Waitrose does not. I have seen many bottles enjoying the sunshine in Waitrose shelves.
Then go for one of the brands mentioned here. Kolymvari Gold is a very good combination of price and taste and widely available in the UK. Bevellini, from the same people who import Kolymvari Gold is probably very similar.
A few years ago Sainsbury's used to stock Greek Artisans Early Harvest, and I think it is the best bought olive oil I have ever tasted.
Other than that, remember that price does not mean quality. In Greece almost everyone has some source of own olive oil, and many have turned to putting it in fancy bottles with designer logos, giving it fancy ancient sounding names and trying to sell it overseas for extortionate prices. Most of the olive oil they bottle and sell comes from the same trees and producers as the one not sold in fancy bottles with fancy names. I think I know the one Daeman talks about, it was on sale at Selfridges for £45 a few years ago. The USP was that it was filtered. Like 99.9% of all olive oils. Nice fancy bottle but someone who tried it told me it was nothing special. This stuff is aimed at those who know nothing about olive oil but want to show off their expensive and refined tastes. There's even a shop in London owned by Greeks, who sells exactly that: the dream, the idea that olive oil is a hip, gourmet product for people with money. Pretty much the same snobbishness the UK public have with wine, which they drink neat (horror of horrors) and they pretend they know about it (another horror). And the same thing that is happening with coffee and hipsters (and ridiculed in a very funny Macdonalds ad recently).
I am not saying that it is not good, I am saying that it is not good value, because what costs about 3-4 euros wholesale is sold for 20-30 once inside the fancy bottle. Also, I don't mind that the shop sells what it sells There is market for that, and they cater for that market. But for most of us, who have access to plenty of olive oil from our own trees this type of commercialisation is a source of amusement. So buy whatever you like, but don't pay £10 for 250ml. Even if they promise you it's amazing etc etc. Try it. If you think it is amazing, fine, if not...
 
Thanks again, SBE! I am indebted to you for your illuminating article and your excellent guide to the purchase of EVOO. I am fascinated to read your comments on serving wine diluted. Can you briefly explain what the modern Greek practice is? I'd like you to give me a quick résumée also on why it is so barbaric to drink wine neat. BTW, I know the ancient Greeks and Romans always drank their wine diluted. Perhaps you can give me the good reasons why they did this.......:)
 

Palavra

Mod Almighty
Staff member
Amazon.de has lots of Kolymvari olive oils. I don't know if they deliver where you are, but you can go through them and find out.
About the wine, I've read that Ancient Greek wine was too strong (and thick), unlike modern wine, so it had to be diluted in order to be drinkable.
 
Thanks, Palαύρα. I 'll try and see if they export it from Germany. About the wine: see what SBE says about in #13:-
Pretty much the same snobbishness the UK public have with wine, which they drink neat (horror of horrors) and they pretend they know about it (another horror). And the same thing that is happening with coffee and hipsters (and ridiculed in a very funny Macdonalds ad recently).
 

Palavra

Mod Almighty
Staff member
I'm pretty sure SBE does not imply that Greeks -or anybody else, for that matter- water their wine, I think she means that people in the UK drink their wine without eating anything to go with it. This is extremely unusual in Greece - even the most disorganised of bars offer a minimum of peanuts to go with :)
 

SBE

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I just looked up the definition of neat and it only has the meaning undiluted, whereas I have been using it to mean undiluted but also to mean ξεροσφύρι. Apologies for the misunderstanding.
Theseus, it is my understanding you have travelled to Greece. Do you recall seeing anyone drinking diluted wine?
 

daeman

Administrator
Staff member
... Do you recall seeing anyone drinking diluted wine?

I do, Miss, I do, but mostly Germans mixing retsina with cola, a certainly cringeworthy concoction, but given the ahem... "quality" of retsina they preferred because it was the cheapest, I would not blame them much for trying to avoid that horrid taste. But then again, a slightly better kind of retsina or other wine would not cost much more than the combination of that cheap stuff and cola. I'm sure that it's not only Germans who do (or at least did) that; I just happened more often to notice Germans doing it. I've also seen several tourists, from central Europe mostly, dilute good wine with soda or sparkling water, because bubbles... :rolleyes:

As I've frequently seen Greeks drink ouzo with cola or orange soda because it was quite cheaper than other drinks, straight or mixed. Πενία τέχνες κατεργάζεται, αλλά και ό,τι πληρώνεις παίρνεις. Και καλύτερα να ψάξεις να πιεις κάτι καλύτερο, κι ας είναι και λίγο πιο ακριβό (που δεν είναι απαραίτητο), άρα να πιεις λιγότερο αν έχεις περιορισμένο βαλάντιο, παρά να πίνεις ξίδια και να καταστρέφεις και τη γεύση και το στομάχι και το κεφάλι, και την όποια εμπειρία τελικά.

As for neat and ξεροσφύρι, I know a good forum: Ξεροσφύρι. :-)

Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps, please.
 
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