Harvesting Liquid Gold

Written by Rosemary Mantini | 24 February 2011

I had the opportunity recently to talk with Niki Tsourounakis of Amphora, a family-owned company that produces and imports its own high quality extra virgin olive oil. She is passionate about healthy, fantastic tasting food and argues that unadulterated olive oil is what makes a good dining experience great. Personally speaking, I’d say that enjoying fresh food in warm and sunny Greece helps too. But, I digress.

Niki explains that the idea to develop Amphora emerged from a family trip to her father’s hometown in Vlatos. Located in Chania, Crete, Niki was feasting on fresh, delicious food drizzled with the family’s own organic extra virgin olive oil, she says, when she realized that people beyond her family would truly love to experience food the way she always has. Not just for frying or drizzling over salad greens, high quality extra virgin olive oil is great on popcorn and in baked goods (instead of butter).

Read on to find out how Niki and her family produce olive oil in its purest form.

Tell me about how Amphora came into being?

I asked myself why we were selling the olive oil to larger companies who were then compromising the quality by blending it with lower quality oils, and sometimes not even olive oil. The idea of exporting the olive oil to Canada as is, and marketing it as 100% extra virgin, and certified organic really appealed to me. After all, it’s the way I love to eat and I knew it was important to make great food products available to people here, especially quality olive oil.
The Vlatos olive trees are completely family owned and run. We oversee everything from the harvest, picking, production, and bottling of the olive oil. This way we can ensure we know exactly what is inside the bottle.

My mother is from the mainland, a beautiful town called Mavromati, and my father was born and raised in the town of Vlatos. This is where the olive trees are and have been in our family for centuries.

Why do you use only olives grown in the village of Vlatos?

We only use olives from the village of Vlatos because these are the only ones we can attest great quality to. Our goal is not to mass produce oil, but to share our harvest. We want as many people as possible to experience this delicious and nutritious olive oil. Also, we wanted to keep it single estate, which is important to us, as we are very proud of our harvest.

Vlatos olive oil only uses Tsounati olives. How would you describe the taste of Tsounati olives vs other kinds of olives used to make oil?

The Tsounati olive is described as producing an olive oil that is very light and fruity, with a buttery finish. Olive oil is like wine and will produce very different flavours depending on which variety is chosen.