Description
A unique product has been created by leveraging our know-how and experience. This meticulous specialty is one with nature, is not mass produced and is hand-crafted by following and respecting tradition. We employed Slovenian wood, high-quality glass from well-established Slovenian glass works and top notch cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil.
Yearly we produce some 2000 l of cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil – that heavenly golden-green nectar of unmatched quality.
Olive Tree Varieties
The olives chosen for Puravida olive oil come from an organically farmed olive grove in Ankaran, the heart of Slovenian coastline. The grove covers over 2 ha (5 acres) with some 700 olive trees, mostly of indigenous varieties such as Istrian belica, Ankaran and Piran črnica, drobnica, buga, and štorta, as well as a few Mediterranean varieties – leccino, pendolino, frantoio, and maurino. The hand-picked olives are cold-pressed in a state-of-the-art olive press at the Lisjak oil mill in Stara Šalara on the same day they are harvested. The oil is pressed using only mechanical procedures at a temperature not exceeding 27°C.
History and Tradition
Olive oil production has a long tradition in Slovenian Istria, and olive oil from the region was mentioned back in the second century AD by the Greek geographer Pausanias (c. AD 110–c. 180) in his Description of Greece. This region’s oil is also mentioned in several sources from the 13th century and onward. Producing olive oil was the main economic activity in the area until the second half of the 19th century, but after the great frost of 1929 the industry suffered a decline.
The revitalization of this time-honored tradition began after 1985. After lengthy discussions and decades of poor visibility, olive oil from Slovenian Istria has gained a reputation as a delicacy and a true rarity, as the geographic position and climate of the olive growing region give the oil a range of unique qualities. Olives mostly come from small, privately-owned groves (up to 0.4 ha), and groves cultivating olives for olive oil cover only 92 ha of the Slovenian Istria.
