Region of origin: SICILY
Flavor category: GENTLY FRUITY
Size: 5 liter tin - 1.3gal
Smell: Fresh grass with a lightly smell of tomato
Flavor: Fresh olive that brings up a taste of grass and tomato. Bitter almost imperceptible
Uses: Suggested for cooking, as finishing oil for lighter foods such as white meats, carpaccio, fish, grilled vegetables

"Paradiso" describes not only the taste of this extra virgin olive oil, but also where it originates. "The most beautiful city of the mortals" was how the Greek poet Pindar described the Valley of the Temples in southern Sicily, outside the town of Agrigento, where the olives that create Paradiso grow.

A trio of distinctive Sicilian olives creates the unique Olio&Olive Paradiso blend: Biancolilla, Nocellara del Belice and Cerasuola. The olives, the product of a growers' cooperative, are picked and processed in ancient ways. Olives ripen at different times on different parts of the trees, so hand-harvesting guarantees that only the olives that are ready to become Paradiso will be picked. A machine doesn't know the difference, and it shakes the trees so that the olives fall, risking bruising.

Within hours of being hand-picked, the olives are rushed to a stone press -- a spremitura. The press is carefully calibrated to apply just enough pressure to extract the oil from the fruit without making it bitter. These simple, traditional methods produce an extra virgin olive oil that is gently fruity with almost no trace of bitterness and an extremely clean finish -- perfect for white meat and fish.

We have no doubt that if Pindar were alive today, he would call Paradiso "The most beautiful olive oil of the mortals."