OUR OLIVE OILS
THE BAY GOURMET EVOO’s
These extra virgin olive oils are produced using the more modern centrifuge system. These olives are picked over a full day, (approx 1 – 1.25 tonnes) kept cool over night and then pressed early the next morning – starting at 7.30. That’s early for us!
Because of the volume picked and the much larger processing plant we are able to offer these superb (multi award winning oils) at a cheaper price than the Artisanal Traditional methods , the bigger the bottle the bigger the saving to you – the customer.
We have two oils in the bay gourmet brand.
J5 & Frantoio (pressed together) This mix is our more green punchy peppery oil because we pick it earlier when the olives are less ripe.
Grove mix is are slightly more popular oil which can have 4 different cultivars picked and pressed together – all based on the ripeness of the fruit and the optimum picking time.
These are picked 2 – 3 weeks later giving a good lighter pepper with a slight buttery finish with a soft grassy flavour. All unfiltered – quite simply our customers prefer the 100% authentic unfiltered extra virgin olive oil.
These oils are available in 250ml, 500ml, 1litre & 3 and 5 litre “bag in the boxes”. These oils are great value and the 1 litre bottle in particular is really good value.
VIRGIN PRESS EVOO
Virgin Press EVOO is created by picking in the mornings and then to our traditional hydraulic press rooms for the afternoon press where we produce the finest limited quantity Artisanal Extra Virgin Olive Oil – all under 12 hours from picking to pressed oil.
We have 3 traditional presses with a 4th coming for the 2017 harvest which will help with demand and guaranteed to be picked and pressed on the same day all within 12 hours!!!!!
Pressing with the older hydraulic presses is not about quantity but completely focused on quality and flavour – the traditional presses enable us to control the process by squeezing the paste more gently. We aim for a beautifully balanced oil with mild pepper and a smooth slight grassy flavour with a hint of citrus bite and then a final good back of throat pepper tickle.
Virgin press is readily indentified by the picture of an old press on the side of the bottle beside the label. The cultivars for these oils are J5, Frantoio and Ascalano.
These 3 may be picked and pressed together to create a unique mixed oil (note we DO NOT blend oils) – we pick and press different olives together to try and produce the very best taste possible and we produce this oil using the traditional presses because we genuinely love it- it is much slower but it means we handle the olives fully from the tree to the oil and you can’t speed this up as we have to crush it, malaxe it and then load it onto the mats in the press and then watch the oil slowly seep out.
These oils are only available in 250ml, 500ml and 750ml bottles.
LEMONS CRUSHED WITH OLIVES
Our hugely popular and stunningly smooth and delicious LEMONS CRUSHED WITH OLIVES which creates the UNIQUE LEMON-OLIVE OIL – made by using the traditional Italian Agrumato method.
This is NOT an infused oil but a far more unique fused oil where the lemons are crushed together with the Northland J5 olives and the 2 oils that are released in the centrifuge press combine to produce this extraordinarily smooth lemon/citrus flavoured oil.
There is only 1 lemon in the Far North (the Yen Ben) that ripens at the same time as the olives . It is a partnership of 2 incredible fruits ripening at the same time that produces this simply superb oil.
This is often only considered a Summer oil but it is used almost as much during the Autumn and Winter seasons – just imagine that beautiful summer citrus flavour with fish and chicken dishes, (it works wonders with a Thai Green Chicken or Fish dish) – is fantastic drizzled over a light pasta dish with hot grilled prawns or just over a light stuffed pasta. But for something really amazing try it just drizzled over French Vanilla ice cream or drizzled over Strawberries cut in 1/2 and left to rest with the Lemon Oil slowly working it’s magic. It is truly sublime – both ideas came from our customers.
Every pantry should have a bottle of this truly unique oil BUT it must be the genuine, artisanal Agrumato method – fused, NOT infused. There really is a huge difference in the flavour and the quality. This fantastic taste sensation that excites the taste buds is available in 250ml, 500ml and the big 750ml bottles.
Click here to read the report on the differences between infused and fused oils.