What makes The Olive Oil Source different?

One of the questions we get asked most often from potential new customers is what makes The Olive Oil Source different from our competitors. For me, what makes us different is what we are not. Virtually all of our competitors are people who have gotten into this business as merchants and bring a sales and marketing background to their businesses. For better or worse, we don't come from that background nor do we bring that mentality to the business.

A perfect example of this is some of the E.V.O.O.s we're offering this year. Our Ascolano and Mission are coming from an orchard managed by our mill manager and I have worked with the owner since 2010 to improve their growing activities. Our Manzanillo comes from another orchard that we first got involved with in 2005, helping them solve some difficult pest control issues they were experiencing. Then there are our gourmet flavored oils that are currently being made with fruit from an orchard in the Santa Ynez Valley. I have been working with the owner of that orchard since 2012 in order to get good quantity and quality production from it.

All this to say our business isn't just a store. We haven't gone through a catalog, picked out products we think we can resale with a generous margin and otherwise spend our time focusing on our supply chain. We are much more involved with the products we sell and going forward, now that I've given a little background about us, I hope to show you this in this blog. 

Photo: Barrel tasting Ascolano E.V.O.O. 3/18