With the purchase of a bottle of OL's EVOO vintage 2018, you get full access to a detailed look behind the scenes of our production. Enjoy the impressions and bon appetit!
How ist quality achieved? What is so specific about the quality of olive oil? How can I as a customer be sure that the information on the label is correct? And how can I as a consumer determine that the bottle really contains the olive oil I was promised?
We would like to give an answer to all these question with a simple but meaningful word: transparency.
With the Unfold-Project we make a decisive step towards 100 % transparency and we try to set a new standard to measure quality in the food industry. In 2018 the Unfold Team recorded each and every step of production in the value added chain of the high quality OL-olive oil. Convince yourself.
→ Brand: OL→ Product: EVOO→ Vintage: 2018→ Mill: Balduccio→ Origin: Toskana
→ Analysis EVOO
→ Tanks→ Bottles→ Label
→ OL & Unfold team: Steffen Thomas (Founder, OL), Zoe Philine Pingel (Designer, OL), Rachel Alvarez (Stylist, OL), Lars Moereels (Photographer, OL)→ Dodaj Bardhok (Responsible for the harvest, OL)→ Piero & Matteo (Arrival of goods, logistics, Balduccio)→ Adriano März (Owner of Balduccio, operating manager)→ Alex März (Agricultural employee, Extraction process)→ Andreas März (2nd Filtering, coordination of production, bottling, logistics, sales, Balduccio)→ Elena März (Logistics, customer support, Balduccio)→ Ilaria Menghetti-März (Administration and data processing, Balduccio)
At 14:30 on the 25th of October the harvest starts on the family owned olive grove in Larciano – 7.3 km away from the Balduccio olive mill. The closer the olive grove to the mill, the faster the harvested olives are transported to the Balduccio mill. For more than 40 years the owners of a small property in Larciano have been harvesting and processing their olives to produce excellent olive oil - for family use only. This year the OL team partnered up with the Santa Maria family and the Balduccio mill in order to create an extraordinary extra virgin olive oil - available for everyone. Dodaj Bardhok and his four workers start to harvest the healthy and juicy olives at a temperature of 14 degrees (Varieties: Frantoio, Lecchino, Moraiola). First the nets are being spread beneath the olive trees. For the harvest Dodaj Bardhok and his workers use small tools without harming the olives. Usually the harvest starts at sunrise but due to a tragic family incident in the Bardhok family, the harvest started a bit later today.
Right after the last olives have been picked for the day, Dodaj and his workers load the transport vehicle (Peugeot). 15 minutes later the transport vehicles leaves the Santa Maria olive grove to bring the freshly harvested olives to the Balduccio olive mill. The transport vehicle is loaded with 22 small containers filled with olives. During the transport the olives are protected from light.
20 minutes later, Dodaj and the OL team arrive at the Balduccio mill and the Olives are directly loaded into a bigger container. As soon as the bigger container is fully loaded Piero stores the freshly harvested Olives in the Balduccio storage hall where the Olives wait to be processed. Today, Dodaj and his workers harvested a total amount of 490.00 kg Olives. The Olives look fresh and healthy and are therefore in the optimal condition to get processed to olive oil.
Only 25 minutes after the transport the processing starts meaning that the olives are processed in a time frame of 4 hrs and 25 minutes to 50 minutes after they got picked. First the olives are disbranched, washed and dried with air blades. Then they are shredded and the resulting olive puree is transported to a heat exchanger which chills the puree to 21 degrees celsius. The temperature is of vital importance for the extraction process and the exceptional quality of our OL. Therefore, the temperature is constantly monitored throughout the whole extraction process. After passing the heat exchanger the olive puree is transported to vertical knead barrels that are protected from oxygen contact. The puree is prepared for 10 minutes before it is pumped into the centrifuge where the oil finally is separated from the rest of the olive. The resulting olive oil has to be tasted throughout the process in order to ensure the very best quality. Now the freshly extracted olive oil is stored in a stainless tank waiting to get filtered.
The untreated olive oil is filtered for the first time to maintain high quality for a long time period. Before the olive oil is bottled it is stored in stainless steel tank (max. 100 l) protected from contact with oxygen.
At night the filtration process is finished. Today, 490.00 kg are processed to 63.80 kg filtered olive oil. The gain amounts to 13.02% and there is an unfiltered rest of 3.80 kg.
The freshly filtered olive oil is stored in a stainless steel tank (max. 100 l) protected from light and oxygen.
Today, Dodaj and his six workers start to harvest earlier and Dodaj organized one more worker to help with the harvest. Dodaj Bardhok and his 5 workers start to harvest the healthy and juicy olives at a temperature of 13 degrees celsius. First the nets are being spread beneath the olive trees - then they start picking the olives. For the harvest Dodaj Bardhok and his workers use small tools without harming the olives.
Around half past five Dodaj and his workers start loading the transport vehicle for the first transport of the day. The transport vehicle is loaded with 20 small containers filled with Olives within eight minutes. During the transport the olives are protected from light.
After 19 minutes, Dodaj and the OL team arrive at the Balduccio mill and the Olives are directly loaded into a bigger container. As soon as the bigger container is fully loaded Piero stores the freshly harvested Olives in the Balduccio storage hall where the Olives wait to be processed. The first transport contained 447.71 kg Olives. The Olives look fresh and healthy and are therefore in the optimal condition to get processed to olive oil. When the unloading is finished Dodaj returns to the Santa Maria olive grove to pick up the last small containers.
The 15 small containers are loaded onto the transport vehicle (Peugeot) within three minutes. Then Dodaj departs for the last transport of the day.
19 minutes later Dodaj arrives a the Balduccio olive mill. Again the olives are filled into a bigger container and stored in the storage hall of Balduccio next to the other Olives of the Santa Maria grove by Piero. The 2nd transport contained 335.79 kg olives.
After the last small containers - filled with freshly harvested Olives - have been loaded on the transport vehicle (Peugeot) the workers go home and get some rest. In total, the olives of 38 olive trees have been picked.
2 hours and 6 minutes after the last transport the extraction process begins. The olives are processed in a time frame of 12 hours 29 minutes to 2 hours 6 minutes after they got picked.
Today the filtration process starts right after the extraction process.
After the filtration the Olive oil is stored in a stainless steel tank (tank T). Today, 783.50 kg are processed to 98.0 kg filtered olive oil. The gain amounts to 12.51% and there is an unfiltered rest of 4.00 kg.
The freshly filtered olive oil is stored in a stainless steel tank (max. 500 l) protected from light oxygen.
Later, the olive oil produced the day before is transferred from the 100 l tank to the newer 500 l tank.
At the last day of harvest Dodaj and his six workers start the harvest at the same time as the day before. The sky is clear and it is a bit warmer then the days before (16°C). First the nets are being spread beneath the olive trees – then they start picking the olives. For the harvest Dodaj Bardhok and his workers use small tools without harming the olives.
15 small containers – filled with freshly harvested Olives – have been loaded on the transport vehicle (Peugeot) within 16 minutes. In total, the olives of 41 olive trees have been picked today.
16 minutes later Dodaj and the OL team arrive at the Balduccio olive mill. Again, the olives are filled into a bigger container to get stored in the storage hall. Dodaj and the OL team directly leave after unloading the transport vehicle to pick up the rest of the freshly picked olives from the Santa Maria olive grove. The first transport of the third day contained 375.83 kg of olives.
It takes six minutes for Dodaj and the OL team to load the transport vehicle with the rest of the olives. Then they depart to the Balduccio olive mill – the last time for the harvest of 2018.
17 minutes later Dodaj and the OL team arrive at the Balduccio olive mill to unload the final 21 small containers received by Piero. The 2nd and last transport of the harvest in 2018 contained 526.17 kg of olives.
As soon as the last olives have been loaded in the transport vehicle the OL-harvest is completed. In total, Dodaj and his workers have picked the olives from 113 olive trees in three days. The only task left is the transportation to the Balduccio olive mill.
Two hours and 12 minutes after the last transport the extraction process starts. The olives are processed in a time frame of 12 hours 27 minutes to two hours 12 minutes after they got picked. Before getting processed the olives exhibit a temperature of 27°C.
Nearly one hour later the first filtration process begins.
Later at night, the last batch of olives for the harvest 2018 has been processed. Today, 902.00 kg are processed to 136.60 kg filtered olive oil. The gain amounts to 15.14% and there is an unfiltered rest of 6.24 kg.
The stainless steel tank T – max. 500 l is stored in the production hall until the second filtration will be conducted in a few days.
7 days after the last processing day of the freshly harvested Santa Maria olives, the freshly extracted olive oil is filtered again to further reduce the water content in the olive oil. The second filtration is important for preserving a long lasting taste of the OL.
Right after the second filtration process the double filtered olive oil is stored in the storage hall. Here it will be stored until the olive oil is bottled.
16 days after the second filtration, finally the bottling process of the double filtered olive oil takes place. The olive oil is bottled into half litre glass bottles via vacuum tubes. In total, 292 liters have been filled into 583 glass bottles. Right after the bottling process the bottles are shipped to Düsseldorf via DHL freight.
First, the Heidelberg 4-colour printing machines (GTOVP52N) is being set up for printing the OL labels. Then the discussed printing parameters are tested and approved by the OL team. Finally, the labels are printed and stamped on one side of the label (this helps to get the adhesive label off the material).
The freshly labels needed to dry properly, so that the labels can be cut without damage. For labelling the bottles, the labels are cut to the right format: 4 cm x 17 cm.
The bottles are labeled just in time according to the orders of OL.
In case you have any questions regarding OL, the production process or the Unfold-Project, let us know at mail(at)unfold.eco.
