Kurio Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
What you are about to buy is the the shortest distance from you to Crete, the southernmost Greek isle. Our micro-harvested olive oil is pressed from ancient Koroneiki groves, picked early when the olives are bright green and full of fire.
The distinct, verdant flavors are made possible from what grows alongside the trees: wild thyme, clover, sage, and scrubland flowers in stony limestone soil. The olives absorb the microclimate of the hillside, the mineral-dense terroir, the sea-salted air.
For centuries, the farmers who meticulously tend these groves have nourished their families with this potent elixir. It rarely leaves the island. But what began as a visit to our own family’s farm became a direct line from grove to press, to you.
Food this alive reminds you that you are too.
Tasting notes
The oil is bright green, herbaceous, and unapologetically alive. Notes of green apple, cut grass, and tomato leaf, finishing with a pronounced peppery kick at the back of the throat. That sensation is not heat, it is polyphenols in their natural state, present only in oil pressed and consumed fresh.
Koroneiki is the defining varietal of Crete: small olives with concentrated flavor, naturally high polyphenol content, and a peppery finish that announces itself. These groves have produced oil for thousands of years. On the island, olive oil is not a condiment. It is sustenance, inheritance, and the foundation of every meal worth remembering. In Greek Orthodox homes, a kandili—a small oil lamp—is tended each morning, fed daily with olive oil. The same oil that fuels the flame nourishes the table. A bottle of olive oil sits always within arm’s reach of the stove: spooned generously over boiled greens, grilled fish, roasted peppers still warm from the oven, or day-old bread dusted with coarse sea salt.
Early-harvest olive oil is naturally rich in antioxidants, the same compounds that give it its characteristic bite, unlike your regular grocery store option. The benefits accumulate without pretension as you dress your salads, dip your breads, and drizzle on your favorite dishes.
“This is the olive oil the farmers press for their own tables.
It rarely leaves the island. Until now."
Packed with care
Harvest begins early in October. The olives are still green and firm, and packed with polyphenols, the compound that gives the oil its characteristic intense flavor and health benefits.
Haste makes taste
Early harvest yields less fruit, but what it produces is concentrated and vibrant. The olives are taken from grove to mill in hours, not days. The olives are cold-pressed in Tympaki, minutes from the farms in the Messara plain.
The oil is extracted below 27°C, cool enough to preserve the delicate aromatics and nutrients. It is not blended, nor is it chemically refined or altered after pressing like many commercially available olive oil. What you taste is exactly what left the press: unheated, unblended, alive.