Jaén, San Francisco Olive Oil

Buogiorno!! Where is the best olive oil from ??

When you have a bottle of olive oil on a table, you usually assume it is from Italy, and in your mind it is the best olive oil in the world.

It is an early winter morning in Jaen. The weather is mild and we have arrived to Oleicola San Francisco. We pull up the driveway and notice we are in the production area as we are greeted by an elderly gentleman that transpires knowledge. His name is Jose Jimenez and he is the founder and owner of this oil producing mill. Right away he asks us which is the best olive oil in the world, and we all answered at once and together as a chorus, FROM ITALY. He laughs and tells us stories after stories full of amusement and wisdom.  He tells us that the italian oil producers have done a very good job marketing Jaen´s olive oil as italian, and usually arrived in his mill with a sounding and loud BUONGIORNO.

But times are changing. as we have “guarantee of origin” in many products, the Jaen Olive oil is making its way with this distinction, making this spanish area in southern Spain, the largest virgin oil producing region in the world. The best in the world.

As we finished our tour we were left with a sense of wanting to know more about this area of Jaen and its more than 60 million olive oil trees.

Cheers and enjoy your meal!