All the efforts and care dedicated to the forest of more than 7 million olive trees come to an end, as the second-grade cooperative Oleoestepa SCA begins the period of early harvesting of olives for subsequent cold extraction in the associated olive oil mills.

Just like last campaign, Oleoestepa celebrates the start of the season by launching a limited edition, unfiltered extra virgin olive oil, mostly of the hojiblanca variety grown in the Estepa Denomination of Origin region, with a fruity aroma of green olives with light touches of ripe olives, with hints of leaf and grass, highlighting the intensity of its fruitiness, as well as its balanced bitterness and spiciness.

Oleoestepa unfiltered extra virgin olive oil is characterised by the rustic appearance lent by pieces of olive pulp, which give it a more natural appearance, recommending its consumption raw with a slice of bread or in salads.

This limited edition is available in a 1 litre glass bottle and in a 5 litres bottle. Its high quality is guaranteed by the Estepa Designation of Origin, which gives it a high vitamin E content. Its environmental sustainability is certified with the Integrated Production seal.

They have a best-before date and can be purchased at associated oil mills, authorised establishments and through the online shop by clicking here.

In recent years Black Friday has become the most relevant annual shopping event of the year. Technological devices and warm clothing are usually the most demanded products. On this occasion Oleoestepa joins the event to claim that whims can not only be technological, but can also be enjoyed at the table.

For this reason, Oleoestepa launches a very appetizing promotion based on a 10% discount on purchases through the online store of the different varieties of Oleoestepa Extra Virgin Olive Oils in glass formats (250, 500 and 750 ml).

This promotion will be valid until Sunday, November 27th, inclusive. In order to make use of this time-limited promotion, all you have to do is include the promotional code BLACKFRIDAY22 at the time of the purchase process and the discount will be automatically applied to glass references. This promotion is not valid for plastic, tin and giftbox formats.

As surely you have doubts about Black Friday, we will answer your questions below.

 

What is the origin of Black Friday?

The name Black Friday originates from the 1950s in the United States, when masses of people would pour into the city the day after Thanksgiving and do some shopping. The police began to refer to that day as Black Friday (Black Friday) due to traffic and general chaos.

The term Black Friday was first used in the press in the late 1960s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that American retailers saw its potential.

With the development of e-commerce, stores began to see even more potential. Shoppers have seamlessly adapted to the online environment, and with good reason. Not only do they benefit from pre-Christmas sales, but they also gain the convenience of never going beyond their front door to pick up a package, avoiding the cold of the time of year and the crowded stores.

In Spain, 2020 represented a turning point due to the pandemic and the restrictions, which is why many modest neighborhood stores and small online businesses saw in the avalanche of Black Friday offers the hope of somehow alleviating a difficult year.

 

Those of us lucky enough to live around the Mediterranean Sea have a very close relationship with a tree: the olive tree. In fact, it has been a fundamental part of Mediterranean culture for more than 2,000 years.

This intimate link over the centuries with the inhabitants of the Mediterranean arc, the main olive oil producing area, and the intense consumption of its fruit, the olive, and its juice, the oil, leads us to believe that there is widespread knowledge of its origins, particularities, benefits and recommended uses.

Unfortunately this is not the case. For various reasons that we are not going to discuss here, there are many myths and falsehoods that are present in society about olive oil, negatively affecting a greater consumption of the healthiest vegetable fat, as has been proven by the numerous scientific studies that have been carried out.

Here is our little grain of sand to clear up doubts and help to deepen the culture of extra virgin olive oil, also known as EVOO.

  1. Does heating extra virgin olive oil diminish its health benefits?

Many people claim that extra virgin olive oil should only be used for salads or raw. It should never be heated as it reduces its health benefits. This is false.

Cooking with olive oil actually makes meals healthier. For example, a study published in the journal Food Chemistry showed that olive oil introduces phenols and antioxidants into vegetables when cooked.

  1. Is extra virgin olive oil good for frying?

It is common in recipe books not to recommend the use of extra virgin olive oil when frying because of its low smoke point. False.

Several studies have shown that extra virgin olive oil is the most stable cooking oil when heated, thanks to its high polyphenol content, which stabilises and protects the oil when it is subjected to high temperatures. This is why it is the most recommended for healthy frying.

  1. Is genuine extra virgin olive oil the kind that solidifies in the fridge?

Some olive oil “gurus” recommend putting extra virgin olive oil in the fridge to verify its purity and high quality when it becomes cloudy or solidifies.

This is false. There is no home test to check the authenticity of olive oil. Some oils turn cloudy in the refrigerator and some do not. The quality of a virgin olive oil is checked by physical, chemical and multi-residual analyses carried out by an accredited laboratory and a sensory analysis carried out by a panel test approved by the International Olive Oil Committee (IOC).

  1. Does the green colour of the oil indicate its quality?

A large number of consumers think that a very green colour indicates the high quality of the olive oil, the more intense the colour, the better the flavour. This is false.

The colour is not an indicator of the quality of olive oil. In fact, it varies from a pale yellow to a dark green colour, depending on the variables of the olive tree: the place where it grows, the climate and the time when it is harvested. It even changes in its evolution process from the time it is produced until its best-before date. In short, you can enjoy a magnificent extra virgin olive oil with straw-coloured tones or find intense green oils with defects.

  1. Are all olive oils equally healthy?

“What difference does it make to take olive oil or extra virgin olive oil if they have the same properties” say many consumers when choosing their vegetable fat. This is not true.

Extra virgin olive oil is pure olive juice, with no defects whatsoever, and has the most health-giving properties, which increase the higher the quality of the oil. This has a lot to do with its polyphenol and oleocanthal content. We must not forget that olive oil is the result of the mixture of refined oil and virgin olive oil, which gives it colour, flavour and health properties.

  1. Does olive oil expire or does it improve with time, like wine?

Some people think that olive oil expires, others think that over time it takes on attributes, becoming richer, like wine. In both cases this is false.

Olive oil does not expire. Its label does not mark an expiry date, but a best-before date. In other words, it is not harmful to the organism if the oil is consumed after the best-before date, but its qualities will deteriorate due to progressive oxidation and rooting. As juice, extra virgin olive oil gradually loses its properties and at a certain point defects begin to appear. It is at this point that it ceases to be extra virgin olive oil. Therefore, the date that appears on the back label of a bottle of extra virgin olive oil indicates the latest date by which its content maintains its properties as an irreproachable juice, without any defects whatsoever.

  1. Is olive oil with higher acidity better?

There is widespread confusion about the acidity of olive oil. In fact, many consumers (usually olive oil consumers) believe that olive oils with higher acidity are more intense than those with lower acidity. FALSE.

Acidity is a chemical parameter that has nothing to do with taste, it indicates the amount of fatty acids that deteriorate by degradation or fermentation in the raw material. In other words, the higher the acidity, the lower the quality, without affecting the taste. This is why you can find two extra virgin olive oils with the same acidity, but with very different flavours, both of which must have less than 0.8%. In the case of extra virgin olive oils protected under a Designation of Origin, this requirement drops to 0.3%.

  1. Is olive oil fattening?

If you have reduced or discarded olive oil from your regular diet because of the belief that it is fattening, you are wrong. FALSE.

Among the many other healthy properties of extra virgin olive oil is its satiating capacity, reducing that irrepressible urge to eat without measure.

Likewise, its high content of healthy fats facilitates the transformation of food, favouring digestion.

  1. Is consuming olive oil good for the heart?

Many people, especially those with cardiovascular problems, reduce their consumption of olive oil because they think that olive oil, being a fat, cannot be good for the heart. FALSE.

As a fundamental pillar of the Mediterranean Diet, extra virgin olive oil has beneficial effects associated with its regular consumption, demonstrated by many studies, including the Predimed project.

  1. Is cold extraction of olive oil the same as first pressing?

When we point out that our oils are cold-extracted, many consumers think that this is the same as first cold pressing. FALSE.

Cold pressing was done in old mills with presses in which an olive paste was pressed without heating. Nowadays, thanks to new technologies, the juice is obtained from the olives by extraction through mixers and centrifuges that separate the oil from the olive paste. If the whole process is carried out at less than 27ºC, the properties of the resulting oil remain unalterable.

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