The Ginestares and La Estanca plantations -among others, are located in the village of Cascante (Navarra), a traditionally olive oil place where there were up to 15 olive mills in the 1950s were varieties such as Arbequina, Hojiblanca, Verdial, Arróniz, Arbosana or Koroneiki are grown.

These lands have favourable climatic conditions which do not require special interventions for pests and where organic certified fertilizers are used.

The precise moment to harvest is when most of the fruits on the trees are changing colour exactly when there are still a few green olives on the branches and most of them are completely ripe. Since immemorial times, olive harvesting has been done by hand, imitating the movement of hands when milking; or hitting the branches with a rod so that the fruits fall on a blanket placed under the tree.

Nowadays, these techniques coexist with the increasingly widespread mechanical harvesting with specific machinery that shakes the olive tree. To avoid deterioration of the olives they need to be transported to the olive mill using rigid containers to prevent the fruits from breaking. Once the olives are collected from the trees it is most Important to process them in the shortest possible time, to maintain all of their qualities. Olives are fed into the mill as branches, leaves and other impurities are removed. They go through a washing process, then weighed and separated into different hoppers according to the required classification (variety, ecological, A.O., etc.).

Once in the mill, the olives go through the first phase which consists in crushing and breaking the whole olive in order to facilitate the release and separation of the oil it contains.

It must be ground on the same day of harvest or -at most- within 48 hours, to prevent the oil from losing quality. If it takes any longer, the olives would ferment and the oil would oxidize. The result of the grinding is a paste composed of 2 parts: a solid part (formed by the remains of plant tissues) and a liquid part made up of oil and water of the fruit.

The olive dough or paste that is obtained after grinding is beaten to promote the release of the oil. Water circulates through the mixer that must not exceed 30º C so that the aromatic compounds are not lost and the oxidation processes are not accelerated. The paste drops onto the mixers, where blades make it rotate at a specific speed to agglutinate the oil particles in suspension as much as possible.

It is the phase in which the oil contained in the dough that comes out of the blender is separated from the rest of the components of the olive. The extraction consists in putting the olive paste in a centrifuge without adding chemicals or heat. By rotating the paste at high speed, the products are separated in levels by means of the different liquid densities. This leaves the heaviest (water and pomace) in the outermost part of the centrifuge whereas the least heavy, the oil, stays in the middle.

After going through all the quality controls, the obtained oil is bottled and packed ensuring its traceability; the batch number allows tracking it down all the way to its exact origin. From that moment on, the oil is ready to be sold to our clients and enjoyed by consumers who have placed their trust in our brand for over 60 years.

At Urzante we engage all our senses into taking care of the quality that is confirmed by the meticulous and strict quality controls that accompany our products throughout the production process; all the way from the olive grove to the consumer’s palate.

The plant has a state-of-the-art laboratory in which it performs chemical analyses and sensory evaluations. Routine analysis are carried out with professionalism to verify legal parameters as well as to development of new analysis methods.

A highly specialized professional team guarantees the efficiency of the entire control process. In turn, these competencies are also confirmed by various certificates in accordance with internationally recognized quality standards.

Our oils are of high nutritional and gastronomic value. Most olive oils come from Spain; by far the largest producer with almost half of the world’s production. If you want to know where your olive oil comes from, carefully read the information on the labels although you might come across different texts that can be quite confusing. “Packed in — ” means that the product has been packaged in that country, but the oil inside the bottle can very well be from different countries and probably not from the country where it was packaged. ” Product of — ” and other such like terms. At Ondoliva Olive Oils, we really treat our consumers seriously to avoid confusion. We are proud to say that our olive oils are guaranteed 100% ORIGIN SPAIN. No confusion, no tricks.

WHY WE SHOULD USE OLIVE OIL

Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat and the cornerstone of the world known Mediterranean diet. Most people choose olive oil because of its many proven benefits for human health. Extra virgin olive oils offer even more: a range of bitterness, fruity flavours that chefs capture to elevate dishes to a level they never thought possible.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF OLIVE OIL

There are several significant scientific studies that show the benefits of some foods that include olive oil. Replace other fats such as butter with at least two daily tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil; eat plenty of vegetables and go for a walk, as suggested by medical journals around the world.