This weekends adventure took me to the most north I had yet to venture - The Akkar. Its olive picking season and the trees were loaded with green and purple little sour devils. This tour and a half visited the Zejd Olive Oil Company and their processing "plant" (a family run business on the bottom floor of their home). Zejd is the only organic olive oil company in Lebanon and its newest family member to take over, Yuessef (sp?) is a master olive oiler. After studying in France, he came back to pretty much revolutionize olive oil for Lebanon. The name of their company comes from the Phonetian name for olive oil, as it is said they invented the liquid substance ages ago in this very land known today as Lebanon. But today, it is Italy that is known for their olive oil, with Lebanon consider substandard...poor. And we got learn how olive oil is made, the steps to mess it up and the techniques to keep it Extra Virgin! Like did you know that you need to keep the olives at a under a temp of 30 degrees C (cold pressed) or else it looses valuable nutrients...and that only extra virgin can hopefully promise that? Or that pressers mix their oils upon the season to obtain the best blends...that the olives are green (unripened) and then turn brownish purple on the tree...the unripe ones are good for table olives, the more ripe are better for oils. And, in proper olive oil tasting you swirl the oil in a cup, heating the oil with your hand...breathe in the aroma..and then take a sip...not swallowing...and breathe in with your mouth and out your nose...if your throat starts to burn...its a good one!
Check out the images...captions and geo-tagging included!
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