Red Baron's Azeite tastes nothing like the olive oil you'll find at the supermarket. You'll pick up notes of flowers, nuts, pepper, and toffee, with an aroma reminiscent of a freshly cut flower meadow and a birch sauna whisk. Even the color is striking, a bright green with golden undertones straight after pressing.

We're used to fresh, self-pressed olive oil, so it's always interesting to see how surprised new customers are that olive oil can taste so different from what they're used to. There's no single reason for that. The flavor comes down to a combination of things: the olive variety, freshness, harvest timing, soil, pressing method, and climate.

One of the biggest factors is timing. Red Baron's olives are always picked at the very start of the harvest, what's known as an "early harvest," while they're still half-ripe. This means less oil per olive, but a much richer flavor. Freshness matters just as much. Olives can often sit for days between picking and pressing, but ours go straight to the press the moment they're picked, at their absolute peak.

The climate and soil in Portugal's mountain region are ideal for growing olives. There are over 8,000 olive varieties worldwide, and the finest oil comes from the varieties native to Portugal, Galega and arbosana among them. Red Baron is pressed only from the best varieties, grown naturally in ideal conditions.

Our oil is pressed in a modern mill that still relies on traditional methods. Mechanical cold-pressing draws out the best of the olives' aroma and health benefits.

Red Baron is always extra virgin, the highest quality grade there is. That means the oil is mechanically cold-pressed without heat or chemicals, so the olive's natural aromas, nutrients, and antioxidants stay intact. Extra virgin status requires an acidity below 0.8%, but Red Baron comes in well under that, at less than 0.2%, a mark of exceptional quality and freshness. Together, these things guarantee what's in the bottle is genuinely premium, unprocessed olive oil, not something industrially altered.

Red Baron's flavor really shines when it's used on its own to finish a dish, drizzled over a salad, on top of pasta, or simply alongside bread and cheese. It's also great for frying and cooking of all kinds, contrary to the common myth that olive oil can't handle high heat. We use it for absolutely everything ourselves. The oil you choose makes a real difference to how your food tastes, and it's not something worth compromising on.