Green Gold, Responsibly

"Once you are lucky enough to have more olive oil than you need, you might as well share it with others."

This is how the Hungarian-English couple, Tom and Juli, describe the ideology behind Honest Toil. Having found themselves the owners of a small olive grove in the Peloponnese region of Cyprus, Tom and Juli first sold their olive oil by the wheel at markets in Berlin, Budapest, and London. The reputation of Honest Toil's "olive juice" quickly spread. The olives for Honest Toil's oils still come from Tom and Juli's own olive grove in Cyprus, as well as from neighboring families' farms. Responsibility for their own product is particularly important to Tom and Juli, who are involved "hands-on" throughout the entire production process, and do not use any intermediaries to sell or market their products around the world.

Cooperative supporting the village community

Although Tom and Juli's entrepreneurship has grown from a few tons on a wheelbarrow to the annual production of hundreds of liters, the core of the business has remained unchanged.

Although Tom and Juli could have bought more land and expanded their production, they decided to work directly with other local producers who grow the same variety, koroneiki, and harvest their trees using the same traditional methods. In this way, they guarantee a livelihood for their neighbors and support local, traditional activities. The cooperative also ensures that the high-quality olive oil from these groves ends up directly on our dinner tables, instead of being bought from families at a ridiculous price and mixed with poor quality, industrially produced oil.

Environment first

Tom and Juli's passion is incredibly good olive oil, centered on responsible operations and methods that uphold tradition. Unlike intensive, industrial olive oil production, the groves in the area are small-scale and as diverse as possible in an ecological sense.

Honest Toil uses exclusively traditional, manual harvesting methods, using propeller-like devices that remove the tiny koroneiki olives from the branches, causing them to fall into large nets spread under the trees. This process respects the birds and other animals that live in the olive grove.

Once the olives are picked, they are collected in sacks and taken to the village's communal press on the same day to preserve their high quality.

Green Gold Electors

Winter is the season for olive growers, when ripe olives are collected and pressed into delicious oil. November is the harvest time: at this time the olives are at their plumpest and the oil obtained from them is of high quality and low in acidity. The oil is made exclusively from Koroneiki olives, which have an exceptionally high content of polyphenols, which have been proven to be particularly healthy.

Honest Toil's extra virgin olive oils are always unfiltered and freshly cold-pressed. The pressing takes place at temperatures below 27 degrees Celsius. Much more oil could be extracted from the olives at higher temperatures, but that would also mean interfering with the olive's valuable nutrients - and Honest Toil prefers to keep it pure.

Pressed olive oil does not undergo any further processes, such as filtration. The oil contains sediment from the olive skins and seeds, which gives it a matte translucency and thick consistency. Honest Toil also never blends its oil with low-quality oils, oils from other regions, or oils from previous harvests.

Unlike filtered and refined olive oils, Honest Toil is a living substance with a lifespan. This means that at harvest time the oil is thick and green with a peppery kick, then as the oil matures its color turns golden brown and the flavor mellows.

Honest Toil extra virgin olive oils are available in 500ml, one, two and five liter packages.