FAQ

Most olive oil brands buy bulk oil from large suppliers and bottle it under their own label — which means they can’t truly verify the harvest date, origin, or how the oil was made. Because we control every stage from tree to bottle, every claim on our label is something we witnessed ourselves, not something a supplier told us.

Turkey 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. The reason you hear less about Turkish oil is that 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 estate, single cultivar (Memecik), harvest-dated, and bottled under its own name.

Yes — Heraclea is Fair Trade Certified™. The premium from every Fair Trade purchase goes back to the people who grow and harvest our olives. You can read how the program actually works on the ground in our Fair Trade article.

Because we farm the land ourselves, our agricultural choices shape the footprint of the final product. We use no agro-chemicals at all — no fertilizers, no pesticides, no artificial irrigation — which together account for over half the carbon footprint in olive oil’s life cycle. We also donate 1% of all sales to environmental causes as members of 1% for the Planet.

Same trees, different moment. Early Harvest is pressed from green, unripe olives picked at the start of the season — intensely fruity and peppery, with our highest polyphenol content (550 mg/kg). 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 the antioxidant compounds behind most of olive oil’s studied health benefits — and the peppery catch you feel in your throat with a truly fresh oil. Our Early Harvest measures 550 mg/kg; the EU requires 250 mg/kg before a producer may even print a polyphenol health claim. We publish our numbers because we can. Here’s the full guide.

Cook with it — extra virgin olive oil handles everything a home stove does except deep-frying. Mature Harvest sits at the top of the EVOO smoke point range (around 405–410°F) and is our cooking workhorse; Early Harvest belongs on the table. The smoke point worry is mostly a myth, and we wrote up the real numbers here.

Our own extra virgin olive oil, slowly infused with real ingredients — lemons, garlic, chili peppers, rosemary. Nothing artificial, no flavorings. They’re made to be used generously: bread, eggs, pasta, marinades, dressings.

Yes — Heraclea is USDA certified organic. Our groves have always been free of any and all agro-chemicals — no fertilizers, no pesticides, no artificial irrigation — and the certification confirms what we have practiced from the start.

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 18–24 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 in stainless steel tanks — oxygen removed, below 16°C, away from light — at our own facility 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 own and operate our fulfillment ourselves rather than using a third-party logistics provider — the same hands that 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 all orders above $75, and $8.99 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.