The advantages of having your own oil mill

Grandpa Savino said that ‘having your own mill is everything’ to get the best extra virgin olive oil: here’s why.

“Having your own oil mill is everything” says Savino Muraglia senior: today we explain why having your own oil mill is so fundamental to obtaining the best extra virgin olive oil possible.

We talk about a journey that starts from the olive tree, passes through the mill and arrives at the bottle or as in the case of Frantoio Muraglia at the jar.

To have a great product it is not enough that the raw materials are excellent, it is also essential that the production process is perfectly controlled at all stages.

Whoever works in the mill must in a certain sense accompany the olives from the tree to the final consumer without missing any stage of processing and storage.

To obtain the best extra virgin olive oil, therefore, one must start with the olive harvest.

he olive harvest and storage before milling

A fundamental step in producing a quality extra virgin olive oil is the harvesting of the drupes, i.e. the olives at the right time and in the right way. By appropriate we mean not only that the olives should be harvested at a certain time of the year, but also that they should be stored in a way that does not damage them.

The timing of the olive harvest depends on many factors: the quality of the olives, the climate of the area, and also of that specific season.

It is important that the olives have reached the right point of ripeness, so they should not be picked too early or too late. Harvesting the olives at the right time, when the colour changes from green to purple, as we have explained in this article on oliveharvesting, influences the quality of the oil in several ways: on the organoleptic qualities first and foremost it also affects the nutritional properties of the oil by varying the proportion of saturated/unsaturated fats.

After harvesting, the olives must be stored and transported from the olive grove to the mill.

This phase must take place in a very short time and this is where the proprietary mill becomes essential: to obtain the best extra virgin oil, the olives must be processed in 24 to 48 hours maximum.

To process them so quickly, not only must the journey be shortened, but the transformation into oil must take place quickly: if the olives are not processed very quickly, the fruit may ferment or come into contact with excessively high temperatures.

These processes, which must be avoided at all costs, then give rise to certain organoleptic defects.

Oil defects: what happens if the olives are not processed quickly

If the olives have been piled up for a long time, the oil may develop both a smell and a taste defect called reheating: this is due to the fact that the olives have suffered an advanced degree of lactic fermentation.

The term ‘spoiled‘ also describes a defect that is perceptible to smell and taste and is due to the formation of acetic acid, ethyl acetate and ethanol in too large quantities. It is caused by prolonged or incorrect storage, such as when olives are piled up in large quantities.

Wrong storage of olives can also cause the onset of mould due to moisture: this defect then also remains in the oil, giving it a mouldy taste and smell.

The oil can also turn out rancid both in taste and smell, because again oil or olives have undergone an auto-oxidative process due to prolonged contact with the air.

In addition to these organoleptic defects, inadequate and prolonged storage causes a significant reduction in phenolic substances, i.e. the substances that are good for you and present in significant quantities when it comes to quality evo oil.

Olives at your own mill: how to maintain olive quality

Having olive groves, harvesting the olives, storing them and transporting them to the oil mill in a short ensures that the olives are not ‘mistreated’, that they are harvested, stored, and transported in an appropriate manner without ruining the fruit, respecting the time and integrit, but this is not enough.

Even the processing of the olives at the mill must take place according to certain procedures and with scrupulous controls. We have already talked about the very short time and that is why last year we invested in new and modern machinery t hat allows us to work better: the goal is not so much to produce a greater quantity of oil, but to process the olives in half the time,preserving the freshness and quality of the fruit.

So the olives go to the mill where they are processed strictly cold, because temperature is another important factor in the quality of the evo oil.

So that’s why Savino Muraglia senior said that ‘Having your own mill is everything’.

Having our own mill therefore allows us to have a substantial part of the supply chain in our hands and to be able to control all the phases to obtain the best extra virgin olive oil, but also to be able to identify problems quickly, to be able to experiment and innovate: now all that remains is to try our oil in all its nuances of flavours and fragrances..