The Olive Temple

In search of the finest products to fill My Greek Basket with we came across the Karabelas family, the fourth generation of olive growers representing The Olive Temple brand who producers of some of the finest olive oils in Greece and, quite possibly, in the world. 

We immediately knew that The Olive Temple approach to farming (small-scale) resulting in a quality over quantity attitude, their genuine concern for the environment, combination of traditional harvesting methods with top-of-the-line equipment at their mill and their overall love and pride in their product would stand for what we have been looking to put in My Greek Basket – the best Greece has to offer. 

Top-quality extra-virgin olive oils, one of them named The Best Olive Oil in Greece at The International Athena Olive Oil Competition in 2021, has been the family’s passion product for years with more recent add-ons like olive spreads, flavored oils, table olives, jams and marmalades and even olive oil-based cosmetics. Although while initially the brand’s product was one extra-virgin olive oil eventually they came up with more varieties.  The family, with the experience gained from the hundreds of thousands of visitors all these years from all over the world understands different needs and taste habits of people outside the Mediterranean. Therefore, it has adjusted its production from the one and only EVOO to 5 + 1 EVOO labels to meet their habits and its vision. 

The Olive Temple is, as the Karabelas family puts is, a new temple devoted to the sacred olive tree in an ancient place, the town of Olympia, with over 70 centuries-old temples. Ancient Olympia has been known to people all over the world as the place where the Olympic Games were first held and is a great sight by itself but the Karabelas family decided to compliment it with a great idea of olivoturismo – olive tourism that has been steadily gaining its popularity within the past decade among health-oriented and mindful living adepts. So, along with amazing Olive Temple gourmet products another one we wanted to complement My Greek Basket with is a bunch of Greek experiences, the term we prefer over travel, the highlight of our experiences’ offerings being a visit to Ancient Olympia and The Olive Temple farm. Learn about traditional methods of olive cultivating and harvesting and what it takes to make the top-quality olive oil, have a round of tasting of local products and buy the freshest olive oil to take home. 

 These are a few facts on The Olive Temple: 

• The Olive Temple is in the TOP 100 Olive Oil companies worldwide. 
  
  
• The Olive Temple is a producer of some of the most awarded Greek extra-virgin olive oils. Just in 2022 Laurel & Flame Fresh Extra-Virgin Early Harvest Organic Olive Oil won 10 different awards, most of them being platinum and gold, at the most prestigious international competitions. 
  
  
• All of The Olive Temple extra-virgin olive oils are very high in polyphenols exceeding the European Health Claim standard by 3-4 times. Polyphenol-rich extra-virgin olive oils have loads of health benefits (link to EVOO & Health page). 
  
  
• A very rare olive variety, Tsabidolia, is used to make Laurel & Flame Fresh extra-virgin olive oil. It only grows in Ancient Olympia and nowhere else. In fact, it’s the Karabelas family who made it known to the world. It was promoted via a national competition in Athens and its debut gained it the title of the best olive oil in Greece out of 393 entries. Tsabidolia trees are very old ones, over 150 years of age, biologically cultivated with medium size fruit, bigger than Koroneiki but smaller than Kalamata. This olive type comes in a very limited quality, not only due to a limited geographic location but also because most producers have left it. It is very sensitive to weather conditions and falls before most farmers can manage to harvest it. The olive oil made of Tsabidolia olives is rich in aroma and polyphenols in correct balance. 
  
  
• Location of The Olive Temple own groves very close to the mill allows for olive pressing every 3 hours at time of harvesting. The mill is used solely by a single producer ensuring optimal quality control of the production process. 
  
  
• The company has two product lines – the ultra-premium Laurel & Flame and the premium Olympian Myth, both including products other than their renown extra-virgin olive oils of equal quality. 
  
  
• Olives used in olive oil production are single origin meaning they only come from The Olive Temple groves and are not mixed with olives coming from other farmers. The Olive Temple groves count almost 6,000 trees, most of them being around 150 years old. 
  
  
• The My ID Project that is part of The Olive Temple brand and manifests as a QR-code on every item produced by the company not only provides a customer with a bunch of useful info on a product such as awards, certificates, harvest date, lab reports and food pairings, but also serves as a proof of authenticity to make sure a customer’s high expectations for a particular product are met. 
  
  
• No water is ever used in the production process. 
  
  
• Traditional way of harvesting only by mechanical means ensures there is no fruit contamination by any foreign substances including mineral oils. 
  
  
• All extra-virgin oils by The Olive Temple have very low acidity (0.2-0.5%). 
  
  
• Olive mill has state-of-the-art equipment from Italy. 
  
  
• Ecological sensibility in every stage of production – olive mill operates on thermal energy from its residues. Residues from the field are turned into a fertilizer for olive trees. FSC-certified paper is used for packaging.