This is what the locals call oli del raig in Catalan, which is the treasured first press of the olive harvest. 

Olives for more commercial oils are picked much later, when the olives are softer and easier to extract the oil.

But this is a hand-picked, hand-made artisanal product made by a good friend of mine, Franck Massard, in the Montsant region.

An early pick like this means the olives are harder, so you get less oil but the taste is much fresher and more aromatic. 

The olive here is Arbequina, a small, rustic olive typical to south Catalonia. It’s green, fresh and has a lovely sweetness to it, which balances out its gentle spiciness.

It’s bottled unfiltered to maximise all those amazing nutty and spicy flavours, which means it might get a bit cloudy towards the end. But don't worry, you know it’s all good stuff!

Use it in everything - for cooking with, for serving with nibbles, for dressing salads, for drizzling on your morning eggs… just make sure you always have a bottle on hand.

This oil comes in a 500ml tin!