Our Story

Where Time Slows Down and Nature Runs Its Course

At Heraclea, olive oil is a way of life. Our roots are in our family’s grove at Mount Latmos, near Milas, where tradition, hard work, and community still set the pace. We hope every bottle brings a little of that to your table.

Our Commitments

Our Values Flow Through Every Drop

How We Farm

We work with the land instead of against it. Our Memecik olives are hand harvested in our family’s grove and on partner farms near Milas, then taken straight to our own mill, so our oil is single-origin and single variety.
Life in the Grove

Our family’s grove is alive with wild herbs, bees cross-pollinating, birds nesting, and animals grazing. We want to keep it that way, so the land stays a living place as well as a working farm.
Fair Work & Local Culture

Olive oil cultivation in our region is at the center of our culture and economy. We believe in preserving this tradition by working with people who know this land. We pay wages well above the Turkish minimum wage and continually assess the social and economic impact of our presence and production.
A Short Trip to the Mill

Every olive in our oil grows within about 25 km of our mill, so it reaches the press within hours of picking. The oil is filtered the same day, stored under nitrogen, and packed in dark glass and tin.

Our Process

How Our Oil Is Made

From the groves to the press, our olive oil is shaped by people who care deeply about their craft. We keep it all close to home, so what reaches your table reflects their work, honesty, and pride.

integration

Tree to bottle within 25 km. Nobody in between. Our olives come from our family’s grove and partner farms nearby and are pressed at our own mill in Milas. The work is hard, but sharing it around the table makes it worthwhile.

Our People

Farmers and workers are at the heart of it. We usually pay 25% to 50% above the market price for olives, and a $0.50 per liter Fair Trade premium is paid into a fund the farmers and workers control.

standards

Audited, cold-pressed, uncompromising. Our Fair Trade certification is audited every year by an independent third party. Every olive is cold pressed at our own mill, and the oil is stored under nitrogen in stainless steel tanks.

impact

Good to go…on everything. Our oil comes from Milas, an EU PDO olive oil region. For Eid 2025, the Fair Trade fund paid for groceries for 35 farming families.

integration

Tree to bottle within 25 km. Nobody in between. Our olives come from our family’s grove and partner farms nearby and are pressed at our own mill in Milas. The work is hard, but sharing it around the table makes it worthwhile.

Our People

Farmers and workers are at the heart of it. We usually pay 25% to 50% above the market price for olives, and a $0.50 per liter Fair Trade premium is paid into a fund the farmers and workers control.

standards

Audited, cold-pressed, uncompromising. Our Fair Trade certification is audited every year by an independent third party. Every olive is cold pressed at our own mill, and the oil is stored under nitrogen in stainless steel tanks.

impact

Good to go…on everything. Our oil comes from Milas, an EU PDO olive oil region. For Eid 2025, the Fair Trade fund paid for groceries for 35 farming families.

Our Roots

Meet Berk & Sena Bahceci

Our Roots

Meet Berk & Sena Bahceci

Food has been a shared passion from the start, something Berk and Sena never tire of: cooking, eating, and exploring together. Berk loves hunting for ingredients at local markets, and their weekends are often spent putting their own twist on traditional Turkish dishes, shaping both their work and partnership.

In 2016, a spontaneous trip to Çeşme set everything in motion. By 2022, Berk had left his legal career to turn his family’s century-old olive grove into Heraclea. Sena joined him, seeing Heraclea as a mission to give Turkish olive oil the recognition it deserves.

Today, they make Early Harvest, Mature Harvest, and Everyday extra virgin olive oils, plus bold infused blends, all from Milas, an EU PDO olive oil region. Their proudest milestone is Fair Trade Certification: Heraclea is one of the very few Fair Trade Certified olive oils in the US.