The Olive Trail

Slippery Business The trade in adulterated olive oil. This is what I The Trail Master, Michael North has been saying for the many years, and who am I to know what I know! only a few are interested in the media in the truth others are not interested as I am not a famous chef nor a famous celebrity as there are very few that understand that olive oil and Fresh Olive Oil are trillions miles apart.Follow the link or cut and past to read more from The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller?printable=true In my day of a rest day, rest is not known of when one runs there own business. Monday is when I try to catch up with paperwork mmmmm…it has to be done. First things first coffee and toast (toast with fresh olive oil delicious and stays crispy).

Calling all Good Food Lovers,
This email is a little long but it does have a lot of information that we are trying to put over, please bare with us!

Mike & Sharran have a limited offer for you to join The Olive Oil Club. There will only be 2,000 members then membership will close.
The big problem for us is that very little REALLY fresh pressed olive oil ever gets out of the country of origin.
As consumers, we insist on fresh bread, fresh milk, fresh fish, fresh meat, and fresh produce. Surely, we also have a right to fresh olive oil. Of course, we do … but our whole distribution system seems designed to conceal the real age of olive oil from you, resulting in the widespread consumption of flat, even stale oil.Michael always includes whilst conducting olive oil tastings, unlike some wines olive oil does not improve with time. It is just the opposite, at its peak of delicious perfection immediately after it is pressed. This is why people in olive-growing regions around the world are a little fanatic to say the least, as he is, about fresh-pressed olive oil.
Olive oil imported to where you live can arrive months, maybe even a year, after its pressing, and even worse, the oil may have visited two or even three countries before arriving, some even are bottled in a different country! This unfortunately means that the freshness and delicate nuances of the oil is already on its way out or worse lost by the time it reaches our shelves.
Did you know many olive oils are bottled and labelled without reference to their production dates, making it impossible for you to determine how fresh the oil is. Indeed, the sell by date is the bottling date and not the date of pressing! After all, this natural fresh fruit juice - yes, it is a fruit - is only harvested at a specific time of year at each geographical location.

Each variety of olive has a particular pepper kick AND for purists perhaps the worst crime is blending the varieties of the olive, without explanation, which can lead to a rampant prickle, the out of order pepper kick! By the way some people do like this effect!

Michael has a solution.

For the last 5 years Michael & Sharran have travelled around the Mediterranean, based in Greece where fresh olive oil is second nature. They chose their grower and press owner carefully, looking into their eyes, and questioning, Do you care for your olives? Is there a love in his eyes for his trees, does he have a passion?

They recently moved to Great Britain and quickly learnt that REALLY fresh olive oil of superior quality is not available in non-producing olive countries. Michael called his favourite producer to try to cajole him into further export. He discovered that he would be delighted to send it, but needed a contact to handle the hassle of importation. He floored Michael by suggesting, œWhy dont you do it, Mike? People around the globe know and trust you. If you be my importer, Ill do it. This is something he had never done, or even considered. However, he mulled it over and thought, Why not?

From April, this year for the first time, Michael & Sharran offered REALLY fresh-pressed olive oil to their customers in their shop The Olive Trail in Bloomsbury, London. The response was overwhelming customers could not get over what a difference just-pressed freshness makes in the flavour of their oil!

The oil created a sensation, and customers have been asking for more - in some cases, pleading! please, please make fresh oil available throughout the year.

Michael thought, “what if he could find super-fresh, highest-quality olive oil, made somewhere in the world, anywhere in the world, every three months or so which is about how long olive oil retains its peak of flavour and intensity.

Also this, delicious, fresh, new harvest oil could arrive at your home four times a year, thereby keeping that incredibly fresh, fruity taste flowing over your breads, salads, fish, meat, and pasta all year round.

Until recently there was no real olive oil harvest to speak of in the southern hemisphere but times are changing, and there are now some fine oils starting to emanate from countries like Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and indeed there are now over 33 producing countries!

This fills the gap for the missing six months in the year for ultra fresh oil!

Michael contacted Judy Ridgway: author, olive oil taster, and international judge. She has written 55 books, including Best Olive Oil Buys around the World. The Olive Oil Companion: A Connoisseurs Guide, and invited her to become the official taster for the “Olive Oil Club”

Judy & Michael will select in November, February, May, July and only the best will be selected.

As a member of The Olive Oil Club, you can expect four times a year three bottles of the worlds freshest olive oil to arrive at your home.

Enjoy exquisite olive oils to die for!

As in wine, the possible permutations of taste and texture in olive oils are amazing, that dandelion prickle or the powerful “pepper kick, the oozing creamy, buttery delights. Flavours described as grassy, herbaceous, fruity, and always intense.

You will experience and learn some of the secrets in harvesting and what the effect is on the flavour, was that a ripe olive or not, perhaps mixed, what type of pressing technique was used. Membership will include a full narrative on each of the oils, including about the producer, tasting notes, to add further atmosphere there will be a DIY tasting party plan that you could invite friends to.

If you would like to become a Founder Member of The Olive Oil Club, contact us, so we will have enough time to arrange with the grower/producers, for the next fresh harvest.

How much does it cost? £264.85 buys a years Membership and 12 bottles of fresh olive (500ml each) delivered four times a year, three per delivery. The minimum membership is one year and thereafter a one season notice can be given at any time. The offer we are presenting is exclusive to The Olive Trail and not available elsewhere. Indeed, they do not know of any other service in that delivers precious fresh-pressed olive oils right to your door. This is truly a first, and you can be a Founder Member, remember you were there first!

How do I apply?

Send payment to The Olive Trial, 3 Watersedge, Ellworthy Park, Frome, Somerset, BA11 5LT or telephone 01373 471836 or apply online at http://www.oliveoilclubs.com

You will be amazed by their Flavours and so will your Guests!

This is your big chance to be among the handful people who will be able to enjoy these great fresh oils without needing your own private jet and pilot to whisk you around the globe. It means you need never again settle for mediocre, flat or stale olive oil! You can now let the dishes you serve be dramatically enhanced by these oils lively, vibrant flavours and quality. And, if you can ever part with one of your treasured bottles, think of what a fabulous, exclusive and personal gift it would make for a foodie friend who would have no other way to experience such taste!

This is one of those little luxuries, at a most reasonable price, that can add such delight and satisfaction to every meal you serve. You deserve such simple daily pleasure, you are worth it!!

What inspires Michael & Sharran to say that? Perhaps you have travelled to Italy or other lands, where the culture encourages people to celebrate the pleasure of being alive, of taking time from the daily grind to appreciate friends and family, to celebrate fine food and wine at mealtime. Perhaps you’ve noticed, as they have, how this attitude adds a little sparkle and romance to daily life that we usually forego, with our noses so close to the grindstone. Well, for them, one-way they intend to embrace the good life is to indulge themselves with these gloriously flavourful fresh-pressed olive oils whenever they wish!

If you feel the same way, they invite you to join them in this exciting adventure, our yearlong, follow-the-sun quest for the greatest and freshest olive oils in the world, as we vicariously travel the globe to capture this precious liquid gold. Who can resist such great taste, and such great fun?

Yours in the olive world,

The Trail Master

Michael North
Ambassadors of Freshly Pressed Olive Oils

PS Perhaps some of you would like to actually like to join Michael on the tasting trips, let me know and he will arrange a fully escorted and personally tutored tour for up to 15 private guests first come first served

The origin of the olive tree is lost in time, coinciding and mingling with the expansion of the Mediterranean civilisations which for centuries governed the destiny of mankind and left their imprint on Western culture. Olive leaf fossils have been found in Pliocene deposits at Mongardino in Italy. Fossilised remains have been discovered in strata from the Upper Paleolithic at the Relilai snail hatchery in North Africa, and pieces of wild olive trees and stones have been uncovered in excavations of the Chalcolithic period and the Bronze Age in Spain. The existence of the olive tree therefore dates back to the twelfth millennium BC. The wild olive tree originated in Asia Minor where it is extremely abundant and grows in thick forests. It appears to have spread from Syria to Greece via Anatolia (De Candolle, 1883) although other hypotheses point to lower Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, the Atlas Mountains or certain areas of Europe as its source area. Caruso for that reason believed it to be indigenous to the entire Mediterranean Basin and considers Asia Minor to have been the birthplace of the cultivated olive some six millennia ago. The Assyrians and Babylonians were the only ancient civilisations in the area who were not familiar with the olive tree. Taking the area that extends from the southern Caucasus to the Iranian plateau and the Mediterranean coasts of Syria and Palestine (Acerbo) to be the original home of the olive tree, its cultivation developed considerably in these last two regions, spreading from there to the island of Cyprus and on towards Anatolia or from the island of Crete towards Egypt. In the 16th century BC the Phoenicians started disseminating the olive throughout the Greek isles, later introducing it to the Greek mainland between the 14th and 12th centuries BC where its cultivation increased and gained great importance in the 4th century BC when Solon issued decrees regulating olive planting. From the 6th century BC onwards, the olive spread throughout the Mediterranean countries reaching Tripoli, Tunis and the island of Sicily. From there, it moved to southern Italy. Presto, however, maintained that the olive tree in Italy dates back to three centuries before the fall of Troy (1200 BC). Another Roman annalist (Penestrello) defends the traditional view that the first olive tree was brought to Italy during the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus the Elder (616 - 578 BC), possibly from Tripoli or Gabes (Tunisia). Cultivation moved upwards from south to north, from Calabria to Liguria. When the Romans arrived in North Africa, the Berbers knew how to graft wild olives and had really developed its cultivation throughout the territories they occupied. The Romans continued the expansion of the olive tree to the countries bordering the Mediterranean, using it as a peaceful weapon in their conquests to settle the people. It was introduced in Marseilles around 600 BC and spread from there to the whole of Gaul. The olive tree made its appearance in Sardinia in Roman times, while in Corsica it is said to have been brought by the Genoese after the fall of the Roman Empire. Olive growing was introduced into Spain during the maritime domination of the Phoenicians (1050 BC) but did not develop to a noteworthy extent until the arrival of Scipio (212 BC) and Roman rule (45 BC). After the third Punic War, olives occupied a large stretch of the Baetica valley and spread towards the central and Mediterranean coastal areas of the Iberian Penisula including Portugal. The Arabs brought their varieties with them to the south of Spain and influenced the spread of cultivation so much that the Spanish words for olive (aceituna), oil (aceite), and wild olive tree (acebuche) and the Portuguese words for olive (azeitona) and for olive oil (azeite), have Arabic roots. With the discovery of America (1492) olive farming spread beyond its Mediterranean confines. The first olive trees were carried from Seville to the West Indies and later to the American Continent. By 1560 olive groves were being cultivated in Mexico, then later in Peru, California, Chile and Argentina, where one of the plants brought over during the Conquest - the old Arauco olive tree - lives to this day. In more modern times the olive tree has continued to spread outside the Mediterranean and today is farmed in places as far removed from its origins as southern Africa, Australia, Japan and China. As Duhamel said, “the Mediterranean ends where the olive tree no longer grows”, which can be capped by saying that “There where the sun permits, the olive tree takes root and gains ground”.