How We Mill Our Cold Pressed Olive Oil to Maximize Polyphenols (and Flavor!)

We mill our olives on-site. Always have. The first bins come in from the field before the sun burns off the fog. The moment we have a couple bins, we're milling.

Bins are lifted into a hopper that feeds an elevator, which drops the fruit in front of a high-speed fan. The fan strips out leaves, twigs, and the occasional stepped-on casualty.

Then comes the bath. A gentle soak with bubblers and air jets pulls off dust, mud, hardware, rocks. We’re not just protecting the oil; we’re protecting the machines, the process, the rhythm of the day.

After the wash, the olives head into a hammer mill. Steel hammers spinning thousands of times a minute, crushing the fruit and pushing it through a precision screen. That screen is our flavor control knob. A tighter screen brings more chlorophyll and polyphenols into the oil. More pungency, more bite. A looser one softens the oil.

The paste moves next to the malaxer, a wide steel basin with a slow-turning spiral that kneads the paste. This is where droplets of oil begin to find each other, to merge, to become something you can taste. This step is where the oil gently extracts the aromatics, the phenolic compounds, the vitamins, and the certain special quality from the paste.

Temperature and Time

That’s the heart of this stage. Cold pressed means under 80°F, but we aim even lower, usually 68–72°F. If fruit comes in cold (in the 40s,) we’ll turn on the heat to take the edge off and get the paste a little closer to our idea in order to activate the beneficial enzymes naturally present in the fruit. But always carefully. Too much heat and we start breaking down the very compounds we’re trying to preserve.

We also keep our malaxation short, just 30 to 35 minutes. Industrial producers will run for an hour or more to chase yield. But longer times mean more oxidation. We’re chasing flavor, not volume.

Decanter and Filtration

After malaxation, the paste flows into a horizontal centrifuge, or “decanter”. It spins the paste at high speed, pushing solids out the back while the oil - slowly - rises inside the machine and spills out the front. The result is 90–95% pure oil with a bit of water and sediment.

Traditionally, you'd then run the oil through a vertical separator. We don’t. It adds oxygen and uses water, which strips out some of the most delicate flavor and aroma compounds. Instead, we go from decanter straight to a mechanical pre-filter and a settling tank. No oxygen. No water. Then through a final filter. The oil at this point is clean, stable, and uncommonly alive.

Nitrogen Sparging

Before it enters the tank, we sparge it, bubbling high-pressure nitrogen through a microporous stone. This scrubs out any trace oxygen. The oil flows directly into sealed stainless tanks. We continue to blanket the headspace with nitrogen. The oil is untouched by oxygen from the moment it leaves the filter.

We bottle in small runs, as needed. For those who want the most shelf-stable option, we offer a 3L pouch that is purged with nitrogen before filling and remains sealed until it’s empty - no oxygen exposure, ever.

What "Cold Pressed" Really Means

The term gets used a lot, often by people who don’t seem interested in the details. For us, "cold pressed" means mechanical extraction below 80°F, no solvents, no second passes. It's not marketing, it’s practice. And yes, it’s a bit of a throwback. But that’s kind of the point.

Flavor vs. Polyphenol Content

Some folks chase the highest polyphenol number they can hit, at the expense of not only yield, but also the health of their orchard, and the balance and aroma of their oil. We get it. But we’d rather make something beautiful and complex than bitter and brag worthy. We could stress our trees by cutting their water severely, driving them into fight or flight mode. That does increase polyphenols, but it also makes for harsh oil that tends to be one noted.

Instead, we focus on metabolic health, managing nutrients for balance and trying to optimize sap brix, sugar content, and nitrogen conversion efficiency - all key indicators that a tree is rigorous and healthy. Optimize for photosynthesis. Trees that are metabolically efficient make better fruit, richer in aromatic compounds, balanced in bitterness, dense in nutrients. They make oil you want to eat, not just measure.

Time Is Everything

Once an olive leaves the tree, the clock starts. Bruising, microbial activity, fermentation, they all begin creeping in. We aim to crush every olive within 90 minutes of harvest. Never more than four hours. That’s only possible because we mill our own fruit, on our own land.

Why It Matters

Flavor isn’t a bonus, it’s a sign of health. Of care. Of time taken. And for us, flavor is memory. It’s soil turned by hand and trees pruned with purpose. It’s early mornings in November. It’s sunlight. It’s smoke. It’s your grandmother’s salad dressing. Olive oil isn’t some mass produced seed oil on a grocery shelf, it’s our heritage - what brings people back home.

Our cold pressed olive oil is rich in polyphenols, yes. But more importantly, it’s alive with aroma and purpose. It’s oil you can finish a dish with, or start a conversation around. Because oil this good doesn’t happen by accident.

Explore our Cold Pressed Olive Oil collection. Or, if you want to go deeper, read All About Polyphenol-Rich Olive Oil.