VIRGIN, BUT WITH EXPERIENCE
EXTRA VIRGIN
OLIVE OIL
BENDITO JALEO, STRAIGHT FROM JAÉN
They say you are not from where you were born, but from your people and your habits. And truth be told, that is the only thing we care about. We are simple folk who love our little rituals. We are that generous glug of olive oil over bread that ends in an "olé". Because in the end, bread, like life, is what matters most. But without oil, it is just dry bread.
This is the good stuff: extra virgin olive oil of the "good-good" kind, the one you pour a little extra of, because where this came from, there is more. 100% Picual. 100% extra virgin, made from olives picked at their ripest.
Learn more about this oil: Jaleo del Bueno
This is intense EVOO, early harvest, green through and through, the kind your dad hides when you come round for a visit: if the other one is "the good stuff", this one is beyond words. Jaleo Intenso, for intense people. That is why it only comes in one size, the small one, so you can hide it when you have guests. Olé.
Learn more about this oil: Jaleo IntensoThe place it deserves
Since time immemorial, olive oil has played a leading role in the history of humankind. Seriously, no joke: food, medicine, cosmetic, sacred element and even currency. What some call "liquid gold" has had a starring role in countless cultures for centuries upon centuries. I will go further: UNESCO lists it as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Deal with it.
Under the Roman Empire, olive oil spread across the whole Mediterranean until it reached Spain (which back then was not called Spain but Hispania, but come on, same thing). And here is the thing: the olive oil made in Hispania became the most prized in the Empire, thanks to its outstanding quality. So prized, in fact, that Julius Caesar, famous among other things for his salads, is said to have eaten nothing but oil from the Guadalquivir.
And there, well, a slightly murkier story begins. The Italians, famous for helping themselves to what belongs to others (or at least to other people's cuisine: let us not forget they took pasta from the Chinese and pizza from the Greeks), managed to convince the world that their olive oil was better than everyone else's. They convinced it so well that when you look at the numbers, Italy is not the country that produces the most, but it is the one that sells the most. Some get the fame and others do the work, as they say.
Basically, and this is not me talking, people who know about this have told me: Spain is the biggest producer and its main customer is Italy, which then blends it, relabels it and sells it around as Italian EVOO. Very much our style too, letting others come and take what is ours: our oil, our symbols, our rites and traditions… Apparently even in China they now stop at midday for a siesta. But I will stop here, I am going off on a tangent.
There comes a moment when you get up (from the siesta) and say: enough. Because what is ours is ours, and never mind Italy, we have more and better oil here than anywhere else, and it is time to take back what was taken from us.
