Albania

Lying just across the Adriatic from Italy and just north of Greece, the Albanian coast, known in ancient Greece and Rome as Illyria (ih-leer-ee-uh), and a Mediterranean country where olive tree is though to have originated has been producing olive oil for over 2500 years, supplying oil to the Caesars of Rome.

Albania's temperate Mediterranean climate and hilly, gravelly terrain provide the perfect growing conditions for its abundant olive groves and its coastline is home to olive varietals that grow nowhere else in the world.

The Kalinjot (kal-ee-nyot) olive -- the single, bright green varietal from
which our oil is pressed -- is one such olive.
 

Albania is rich with more than 28 varieties grown throughout the country. The nine most cultivated are Kalinjot, Kokerrmadh i Beratiti, Frantoio, Kokerrmadh Elbasani, Mixan, Ulli i Bardhe Tiranes, Nisiot and Ulli i Holle i Himares. With the exception of the Frantoio variety introduced from Italy, the other eight most commonly grown varieties are native to Albania. The two leaders are “Kalinjot”, which covers about 40% of the total plantations for oil and table use; and “Kokermadh i Beratit”, representing approximately 21% of table olives.
 

The interaction of the Albanian varieties with the local environment (soil, climate, altitude) and cultural practices results in the special characteristics and tastes distinctive to the oils produced in various regions of throughout Albania.

Because political and ethnic strife has kept Albania closed to the world market for so much of its recent history, its extraordinary olive oil has been unavailable outside of Albania until now. 

Good Food Macau thus has the exciting distinction of not just being the only Kalinjot olive oil you will be able to taste, but being the first and only Albanian olive oil you can find in Asia, Australia.