FAQ

Many olive oil brands buy bulk oil from large suppliers and bottle it under their own label, so what they can tell you about the harvest date, the origin, or how the oil was made is only as good as the supplier’s paperwork. We press every olive ourselves, at our own mill in Milas, so we know where each batch came from and when it was pressed.

Türkiye is one of the world’s largest olive oil producers, and the Aegean coast has been making it for thousands of years. Heraclea is named for the ancient city beside our groves. You hear less about Turkish oil because much of it is exported in bulk and ends up in European blends, where the bottle doesn’t mention it. Ours goes the other way: single-origin, single variety (Memecik), harvest-dated, and bottled under its own name.

Yes. Heraclea is Fair Trade Certified™ by Fair Trade USA and audited every year by an independent third party. We pay a $0.50 per liter premium, above the Fair Trade USA minimum, into a fund the farmers and workers control. You can read how the program works on the ground in our Fair Trade article.

We keep our supply chain short. Every olive grows within about 25 km of our own mill and is pressed within hours of picking.

Same trees, different moment. Early Harvest is pressed from green, unripe olives picked at the start of the season: intensely fruity and peppery, with around 500 mg/kg polyphenols (±5%), measured by HPLC to IOC Doc 29, at pressing. It’s the one for finishing, dipping, and salads. Mature Harvest comes from the same groves picked riper: smooth, round, and built for everyday cooking. Can’t choose? The Pairing is both.

If you want to understand what the fuss is about, start with The Pairing. Tasting Early and Mature Harvest side by side teaches you more about olive oil than any article. If you just want one dependable bottle for daily cooking, that’s Everyday EVOO. And the infused oils (garlic, chili, lemon, rosemary) are the flavor shortcuts.

Polyphenols are natural antioxidant compounds in olive oil, and they’re behind the peppery catch you feel in your throat with a truly fresh oil. Our Early Harvest has around 500 mg/kg polyphenols (±5%), measured by HPLC to IOC Doc 29, at pressing. We always give the method and the timing, because a polyphenol number without them doesn’t mean much, and batches vary. Here’s the full guide.

Cook with it. Extra virgin olive oil handles everyday home cooking, from sautéing to roasting. Mature Harvest is our cooking workhorse; Early Harvest belongs on the table. The smoke point worry is mostly a myth, and we wrote up what the research says here.

Our own extra virgin olive oil, slowly infused with real ingredients: lemons, garlic, chili peppers, rosemary. No added flavorings. They’re made to be used generously on bread, eggs, pasta, marinades, and dressings.

Not yet. We and our partner farmers grow our olives the traditional way, and our family’s grove is in the final stages of its organic certification. As of now, none of our products are certified organic.

Because the freshness clock starts at harvest, not at bottling, and a “best by” date can hide a year or more of warehouse time. For peak flavor and polyphenols, treat 18 to 24 months from harvest as the real window. To protect the oil until it reaches you, we filter it the same day it’s pressed and store it under nitrogen in stainless steel tanks at our own mill in Milas. More in our freshness guide.

Use an open bottle within about three months for peak flavor, six at the outside. Keep it in a cool, dark cabinet away from the stove, capped tightly between pours. Light, heat, and oxygen are the three things that age an oil; the counter next to the burner delivers all three.

Yes! Subscribe to your favorite bottles and have them delivered on a schedule that matches how you cook, so the good oil never runs out. Look for the subscription option on the product page, or email people@heraclea.co and we’ll set you up.

All orders ship from our own warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. We run our own fulfillment rather than using a third-party logistics provider, so the same people who care about the oil pack your box.

Orders placed before 10:00 AM ET ship the same day. Orders placed after that ship the following business day.

Shipping is free on orders of $75 and up, and $9.99 below that. Shipping is our largest expense per order, and we do our best not to pass it on.

Not yet. Heraclea is currently available only within the United States. As we grow, we’ll expand to serve customers in other countries.

Email us at people@heraclea.co with your order number and a photo, and we’ll make it right quickly. Glass bottles travel well in our packaging, but carriers are carriers.

We don’t currently accept returns or exchanges. That said, we want every customer to be happy with their experience. If something isn’t right, reach us at people@heraclea.co and we’ll find a way to fix it.

Yes. Our gift boxes are built for it, and we regularly ship corporate orders to multiple recipients with custom notes. Email people@heraclea.co with your headcount and timing and we’ll put a proposal together.

We accept wholesale orders through Faire: search for Heraclea Food Co. If you’d prefer to order directly or need a Faire invite link, email people@heraclea.co and we’ll get you set up.

We’d love to meet you. Reach us at people@heraclea.co. Some of our favorite projects started exactly this way.

We’re always looking for enthusiastic people to grow with us. If you’re a mission-driven olive oil enthusiast, write to people@heraclea.co.

We’re all ears. Email people@heraclea.co and we’ll get back to you promptly.