Honest Toil
Honest Toil stands apart for a simple reason: the people behind it live in the olive grove.
Background & Location
Responsibly produced in Kyparissia, Greece, Tom and his family are embedded in a small farming community where olives are picked and pressed by the same hands that care for the trees, unlike many oils on the market that are often blended, anonymous, and far removed from where they’re grown. They live and breathe olive production here. It’s a community obsession, and one they’re part of every day.
Their groves are planted mainly with Koroneiki olives, prized for their high polyphenol levels, and harvests are never blended. Each year’s oil reflects a single season, exactly as it flows from the press.
Harvest Notes
Last year’s drought pushed everything back by a full month. This season returned closer to the rhythm of the past. Rain arrived at the right time, the trees were healthier, and harvest began earlier.
Although yields across the region were lower, the flavour is exactly what the team hoped for: green, vivid and full of energy.
Harvest days began early. Nets went down, olives were gently removed with small hand-held “twirlers,” and by late afternoon the bags were driven straight to the local village press. By midnight, the first streams of green oil were already flowing.
It doesn’t get more direct than that.
Tasting Notes
This year’s Honest Toil oil is all about freshness and vitality: grassy and bright, perfectly peppery, with a clean kick at the back of the throat. It’s slightly softer and less bitter than last year, thanks to the rainfall.
For Tom, tasting notes are inseparable from harvest itself - the smell of your hands after a day of picking, the scent of the press, the air heavy with olives.
