When an olive oil scratches lightly in the throat and tastes bitter, small molecules are responsible: polyphenols. They are the olive’s natural antioxidants — the substances the fruit uses to protect itself.
In the oil they do two things: they shape the flavour, and they make the oil keep longer, because they guard it against turning rancid.
Where they come from
The level hangs on a few decisions: harvest early, while the olives are still green, press quickly and do it cold. Every day, every degree of warmth costs polyphenols.
Our two oils show what that means: Nobile sits at 344 mg/kg, Intenso at 697 mg/kg — the latter an unusually dense pressing — Coratina naturally carries more polyphenols than the mild Dolce di Rossano.
And health?
Polyphenols have long been a subject of nutrition research. Health-related statements are strictly regulated in the EU — and we deliberately make none. What we can show is a laboratory figure, not a promise.
For us the flavour comes first — the density, the scratch, the finish. Everything beyond that we leave to the research.