How To Be WellnStrong

112: How to Choose a Truly High-Quality Olive Oil | Dino Pierrakos

• Jacqueline Genova • Episode 112

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Most of us have a bottle of olive oil in the pantry and almost no idea whether it's actually good. Today I'm sitting down with Dino Pierrakos of Laconiko, a fourth-generation olive oil producer from Sparta, Greece, to talk about what separates a real extra virgin olive oil from the stuff sitting on most grocery store shelves.

We get into why harvest timing matters more than the expiration date on the label, what "monocultivar" actually means and why it's worth looking for, and the difference between polyphenols and oleocanthal, the compound getting real attention from researchers for its anti-inflammatory potential. Dino also walks through one of the most persistent myths in the wellness space: that cooking with olive oil destroys its benefits. The research tells a more nuanced story, and we break down what actually happens to olive oil at high heat.

If you've ever stood in the olive oil aisle wondering what you're supposed to be looking for, this episode will change how you shop for good.

Right now you can grab 10% off at Laconiko with the code "wellnstrong10"

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Jac: To kick things off, Dino... So I'm so excited to talk with you because I love Laconicco. I'm a huge fan. I'm probably your number one fan. Um, love all things olive oil, incred- incredible health benefits.

We'll get into all of that, but before we get into anything olive oil related, I actually wanna start somewhere more personal because you guys have an incredible story, right, with this beautiful empire your father built, and I just, I think it gives everything else, like, so much more context. So can you just explain to us first, like, how did Laconicco come to be?

Like, I know it started with your dad, but I, I wanna hear the story from [00:04:00] you

Dino: Well, like, it, it, it's a long story. I'm trying, I'm gonna try to sum it up as much as I can. Um, uh, we're a fourth-generation olive oil producer from the southern coast of Sparta, Greece. Um, the majority of our olive groves are actually sand grown. Uh, with that being said, um, s- sand, I wanna say, um, uh, sand is one of the Earth's best natural filtration systems, so it doesn't allow a lot of purity, uh, uh, a lot of, um- uh, impurities to linger around the tree and, and therefore affect the fr- uh, the fruit of our labor, um, our, our amazing olive groves.

So it produces... it helps produce that distinct, uh, Laconico, uh, flavor of intense, uh, fruitiness, grassiness, uh, with a s- uh, with a sweetness of a little bit of butteriness [00:05:00] due to its, uh, its environment that it's being, uh, grown in. Um, uh, we, we started, uh, a little over, uh, 16, almost 17 years ago, um, uh, where, uh, one winter my brother had gone to Greece to help out with, uh...

'cause we always would travel back and forth from, uh, from Greece to here between our jobs, school, uh, throughout the years to help our father with the harvest. Um, then around 17 years ago, uh, my father, uh, had a very candid, uh, and, uh, open conversation with my brother where he mentioned that, you know, he's getting older and at the time, uh, we were just like most olive oil producers or just farmers, should I say, where it's like we produce, uh, the, the fruit or whatever, [00:06:00] uh, agriculture product it is that they produce, and then they, they're d- very dependent on the open market, on the big buyers to come in and hopefully take the harvest or, or their, their yield of whatever it is that they're producing.

So, uh, at the time, um, we, we were mainly working for these bigger companies where, um, the more, uh, more, uh, need just quantity versus quality. Um, so our harvest, with that said, has changed dramatically over the course of our, o- of our, uh, production of bringing it here to the States the last 17

Jac: I'm sure

Dino: So at the time, my father, um, had mentioned to my brother that, "You know, I'm getting older.

Unless, unless one of you guys wants to take over," and being that there's usually the guys are the ones that [00:07:00] take over the farm, farm work, uh- Uh, in Greece, um, he said that, "Listen, we either, um, sell what we have here and, uh, and I can come closer to, to, to you guys in the United States, but by doing so, we would also lose, uh, over the years we know that we would be losing a connection to,

Jac: Of your land, of course. Yeah.

Dino: w- to what we grew on and f- uh, from."

So, um, my brother then, uh, came back here, uh, talked to me and said, "Listen, we either, uh, try to see what we can do, uh, on our own to try to see, uh, if, uh, if this is something that, that we can w- we, w- we can continue, um, and in hopes that, uh, we're able to pass it [00:08:00] on to our kids, uh, or we'd have to just cut ties with our, with our upbringing or with s- with everything that we, we have known up to, to that point."

Um, while, while at that time it just happened that we had also run out of extra virgin olive oil, I remember, here at the house, and, uh, we had... W- we were forced to go just like everybody else, to the grocery store to find, uh, to find something i- in the meantime while, uh, while the new harvest is being harvested until, until it comes in.

And, no ma- no matter where we went, no matter what olive oil we, we were pulling off the shelf of the supermarket, it just, it just didn't have the characteristics that we had grown up of [00:09:00] that grassiness, the fruitiness, uh, the butteriness, that pepperiness of, of, uh, what a high quality extra virgin olive oil should have.

Um, so it's a mixture of, it, it was just timing. Timing is,

Jac: Timing's everything

Dino: timing is everything because between our father, uh, our father telling us that, you know, "Hey, we need to take, revisit our, our agriculture life, our, our, our... and everything," and then running out of olive oil here, and, and, and realizing that, hey, maybe this is something that we can, we can promote and then share on our own versus having to rely and be dependent on these mass, on these mass, uh, commercial grade companies that just look for quantities, don't appreciate quality and, and, uh, a- [00:10:00] and whatnot.

So from one thing to another, then we started sharing it with family and friends once the new harvest came in, just to see if we were onto something, because we, we could obviously taste the difference, but we didn't know what other people think. Um, so, uh, we started sharing it. Everybody kept... The first, the first reaction that everybody would have would, would be, like, eyes wide open, and they would tell us-

Jac: What is this?

Dino: Same que- Yeah, same question.

"Why does yours taste like this?" And we're like, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Um, so i- to our surprise, they were like, "This is amazing. This is so different than anything I've ever had before." So then we're like, okay. We started putting it in a com- in, in, in a, in an international competition, whether it's for health or for taste or for, uh, for quality in general.

Um, and we started receiving international awards and [00:11:00] recognition for a product that we've always grew up, but we didn't know what, how special it was, um, o- other than, you know, having grown up around it and in it.

Jac: It's like, it's like my grandma's cooking, Dina. Like, I don't realize, like, how special it is until you leave and try something else, and you're like, "Wow, I grew my entire life with this amazing chef," you know?

Dino: That's exactly it. So yeah, just, um, uh, one thing fell, uh, fell in front of another, and timing was right to where... And, you know, it took a lot of, a, a lot of, um, a lot of courage to, to say, "We're gonna take this on ourselves, um, and try to see what we can do in hopes to save the, um, what, what we had known up to that point," which is our, our, our [00:12:00] olive trees, which are like brothers and sisters to us- Right

um, because we grew up with them

Jac: What a story. I love that, and do you know, you mentioned something about the peppery taste. This is a great segue. What should olive oil taste like, and how do you know it's a high-quality one by the taste?

Dino: That's a very good question. I tell everybody, I let everybody know that, uh, high quality extra virgin olive oil should have certain characteristics, uh, which I will go into them. Um, but first thing to know is the olive is a fruit. What everybody should be consuming, no different than when you squeeze an orange to, to get orange juice, is a fruit should have a pleasant taste.

Um, y- just like an orange or goes bad and starts oxidizing, breaking down, turning to different colors, [00:13:00] and you can even smell the, the pungency of it when it's going bad. Same thing applies with the olive. Uh, so what you should always be consuming is a clean, fruity, because the olive is a fruit, so you're consuming the, the juice of that fruit.

Uh, in our instance, because we, we, uh, we focus on an early harvest where the fruit is still young and green versus a- an old, an old harvest, which, uh, it's started to change, black. Um, so it should be clean, fruity, velvety. There should be nothing oily about it.

Jac: Hmm

Dino: Um, uh, in our instance, there's... Because just like there's different types of grapes and each type of grape produces different types of wines, each type of olive fruit produces certain characteristics.

The Koroneiki olive that we produce has a very, um, it's known to have a very [00:14:00] buttery, nice, buttery sweet finish. So it should be clean, fruity, velvety, buttery in our instance, uh, with a peppery bite. The peppery bite is an indicator of, uh, of the high antioxidants, or in the olive oil industry, uh, polyphenols.

Uh, полиφαινόλες in Greek. Many, uh, many antioxidants. I- So that, those determine the longevity of the, of the olive oil. Uh, those determine the, uh, uh, like I said, the shelf life, the f- the intensity of it. That, those determine the health aspect of it. Um, so that's, so that's where you get, and that's why a real extra virgin olive oil should have certain characteristics of being clean, fruity, velvety, and a peppery finish.

The pepperiness is a, an [00:15:00] indicator of the high antioxidants

Jac: Interesting. And speaking of antioxidants, we hear this about this phenolic compound, right, oleocanthal, which is present in, in olives, and there's so much interesting literature and research, do you know, on, you know, the cancer-fighting properties of oleocanthal.

Dino: Yes

Jac: so curious, you know, I've heard many people say the best olive oil comes from Greece.

Why, why is that? I'm sure you're biased, but what, what is, like, the philosophy behind that? Is it the trees? Is it the, the soil?

Dino: I, I, I think it's, I'll be honest, uh, everybody, everybody, every producer in every part of the world that produces, uh, olive oil, uh, is gonna tell you they make the best extra virgin olive oil. Um, uh, Greece is known to have the highest concentration of extra virgin olive oil, so maybe that's why a lot of people assume that Greece has the best.[00:16:00] 

So, f- uh, for example, 60% of, of Greek olive oil, uh, that, that, that is produced comes out as extra virgin versus the Italian where it's like, um, where it might be 45, 40% to 50%, and the Spanish come behind with, uh, with 35 to 40%, something like that, in, in quantities that they produce that comes out as extra virgin.

So we're the highest extra virgin olive oil producing country. Um- So it, like I mentioned earlier, each varietal produces certain characteristics. The Greek Koroneiki, which is the most commonly ha- harvested all olive, uh, for olive oil in Greece, um, is known to have a more buttery, balanced, uh, when produced right, a, [00:17:00] a nice balanced and pleasant and aromatic, uh, flavor and taste and smell.

So i- in, in comparison to the pepperiness, to the polyphenols that it also produces. One of, one of the things I assume that why possibly, uh, the Greek olive oil is also known, thought to be, shall I say, one of the, uh, best and healthiest olive oils is because the Koroneiki olive, the varietal that we're known for, our flagship or original that is- that we're known, uh, for being the most consecutively awarded olive oil producer, uh, is- has also high content of oleocanthal

Jac: Mm-hmm.

Dino: in comparison to the oleocanthal content in other varietals.

Not that other varietals don't produce this oleocanthal, this [00:18:00] anti-inflammatory new, uh, uh, property within all of the antioxidants, uh, that you pointed out specifically, is known to be an, uh, anti-inflammatory. Um, it's also being studied for, uh, for its anti-cancerous, um, properties, that it helps, uh, minimize in terms of the inflammation and therefore...

'cause inflammation is a big cause, is, is either the cause or the effect of health issues, uh, health issues. So it, uh, it just produces a high content of oleocanthal. Now, uh, in comparison to a Picual varietal, uh, Picual or, or a Spanish varietal or Italian, uh, varietals which produce great olive oils but just less, less, uh, content of oleocanthal,

Jac: candle

Dino: [00:19:00] which is the one derivative that is being studied a lot, a lot by Yale, by, uh, the World Olive Oil, um- center in, in, in Athens, uh, where they, they're showing some amazing, amazing, uh, results and, uh, new studies that have come out where it shows that, um, it acts...

It, it follows the same paths as ibuprofen when it comes to how it reacts to the human body. So it's like taking ibuprofen, for

Jac: Yeah, I heard that. Yeah

Dino: Um, so it- they're known to have high content of oleocanthal, um, especially, especially the Kalamon varietal, which is a Greek olive. The Kalamata olive, which

Jac: I love Kalamata olives. Do you know? It's like one of my favorite olives

Dino: W- which is known to be the... Which everybody knows it as the, the, that amazing black, uh, salty, vinegary, [00:20:00] uh, black olive that everybody loves. Well, that specific olive has been shown to be one of the highest i- in properties of oleocanthal. That's why we also focus on our medicinal, uh, uh, uh, side of our, uh, the olive oil industry with our Zoe, which means life, uh, which is made exclusively from young, uh, Kalamata olives, uh, which have shown to have over 1,000 milligrams, uh, per kilogram, 'cause that's how it's measured,

Jac: I haven't tried that one. I have to try that one.

Dino: Very spicy, very, v- very bitter, and, uh, and peppery, and has a nice pungency to it, but yet holds those nice intense fruity characteristics, grassiness, and almost artichoke and

Jac: That's [00:21:00] so interesting. So Dino, going back to when you were going shopping for olive oil in the grocery store as you were waiting for your own olive oil to be ready and harvested, what, what did you look for? Like, if someone's going grocery shopping right now and, like, they're in the olive oil section, like, how can they make an intelligent purchase decision?

Like, what are, like, the non-negotiable markers of quality? And I wanna go beyond dark bottle and harvest date. Like, like, what should they be looking for?

Dino: If, if they're not, if they're not able to taste olive oil, um, then to try to minimize the, uh, the possibilities of, uh, the olive oil being spoiled or just not being of, of, of, of fresher, uh, production, thing to, the main thing obviously, like you said, going beyond glass, dark glass bottle is, um, very important to try to see if it's a mon- [00:22:00] monocultivar.

If, if they're able, if they say, if they're honest and say what cultivar it is, because being

Jac: what even is that? I've never even heard of that term

Dino: Like, um, like what varietal? Like is it a single s- it, it's a, is it a single state? Is, is, is, is it a s-

Jac: that's the, that's the thing. Like, I'll see olive oil and it's, like, from three different countries, and my mom too, she's ... My mom's very smart. She's like, "Never buy..." She's like, "Always buy from a single source," and I never understood why, but the more research I did, I was like, "Actually, it is very important to make sure it's from a single source."

Dino: Yes, you minimize the, you minimize the risk of adulteration, you, you minimize the risk of,

Jac: Yeah

Dino: um, o-o-of, uh, of rancid, rancid olive oils being blended, because one thing that most consumers are not aware is that it's not important of when the expiration date is. It's imp- it's not. It's important when the [00:23:00] harvest date is. Be- because by law, you're able to add two years from the time of bottling.

Jac: No way

Dino: so it's, so the oil, oil, so the olive oil might have gone bad already, but guess what?

I bottled it at the end of its first years or first year lifespan, um, so I, I end up adding another two years, when in reality, that olive oil that was bottled or that, that, that was maybe wasn't a good olive oil to begin with, so maybe it had broken down because, um, touching on antioxidants, depending on the, on the quality of the olive oil will, or, or, and the anti, uh, the level of antioxidants within the olive oil will also determine the s- the longevity of the, of the shelf life of the olive oil.

So while most olive oils are, your average olive oil is good six to eight months because of [00:24:00] the shorter quantities of antioxidants, therefore the preservation of the olive oil. Um, or even it was, it was not maintained at the right environment. Um, so it's very important to see the harvest date if you, if, if the, if they, if they're honest and they put it on the, on the, the bottle as the same thing that we do, um, 'cause that will give you a better chance, uh, of receiving a, a healthier olive oil, being that it's within...

'Cause every day, e- every year there's a new harvest, so hopefully you're consuming that year's harvest, and hopefully it would've been maintained properly, well enough to where you're still getting, uh, some, if not most of those health benefits for the pur- so if you cons- wanting, wanting to consume, uh, extra

Jac: Okay, that makes sense. And then what about like certifications, like PDO, DOP, or like [00:25:00] third-party testing, like seals? Like, is that a bunch of BS, or is that like something we should look for?

Dino: that, those are very good indicators that, that olive oil was grown in that specific, uh, uh, area. Um, but it doesn't guarantee that that product is of high quality w- uh, being that it's from that area, like DOP and, and all that, uh, uh, the o- uh, designated origins. Um, it's, it's, it's just, um... It's really important to also have third-party, uh, testing as we do.

We're also Aristolio certified. What that means is that, uh, our olive oil is, uh, i- is monitored, uh, because we bring it once and only once right after the harvest in the winter, so, so [00:26:00] that it doesn't get affected by the outside, uh, climate the rest of the year. And all our facility is climate controlled, so our olive oil is being, uh, tested, uh, and it's Aristolio certified, meaning that our facility is between 55 and 60 degrees, which is the ideal temperature to preserve, uh, a high phenolic e- extra virgin olive oil.

Um, same temperature as, as preserving good quality wines. Exactly. Um, so we get our product, uh, tested twice a year, once when it first comes, and once during, uh, the summer, later on the summer times to one, see and, and verify that it is all being m- uh, maintained properly and therefore the antioxidants have decreased [00:27:00] very minimally, uh, minimal, uh, throughout the year until the next harvest

Jac: Okay, that makes sense. Going back to, um, just like preparation, Gino, and I'm sure you've heard this, uh, this is such like a nuanced area 'cause some people will say... And again, I feel like it's this like persistent myth that like cooking with olive oil is either dangerous or that the heat destroys all of its beneficial compounds, but the research is so much more nuanced than that.

Can you break down like what actually happens to olive oil's polyphenols like at different cooking temperatures and kinda like bust the myth out there?

Dino: Yes, that is, that is a very big misconception that, um, cooking with extra virgin olive oil is not good because supposedly it has a lower smoke point or it, it breaks down this or that, uh, when in reality, uh, it has...

Jac: Tell us the

truth 

Dino: in reality, it has been shown, uh, through, uh, H- Yale, uh, Yale University studies, even [00:28:00] Yale studies have shown that, uh, cooking with extra virgin olive oil is possibly the best olive oil to, to cook or fry with because again, but it al- it also goes back to the, the quality of the olive oil.

So the higher the quality, the higher the temperatures. Um, it ha- it even showed that, uh, it can withstand, um, it, it showed that, uh, cooking with high quality extra virgin olive oil actually showed that it transferred a lot of the antioxidants actually during the, the, uh, cooking process, a- actually transferred into the

Jac: No

Dino: So- Mm ... so i- in like vegetables or like your zucchini or anything- Mm ... it actually, a lot of the antioxidants travel into the food. So the higher the antioxidants, the better the olive oil can hold its itself together, um, and the higher the temperatures. [00:29:00] Um, when they say 450, like our, our olive oil, for example, can, uh, has been shown for four, 400, 450 to 500 degrees.

Not that food ever gets cooked at those types of temperatures, because don't forget, oil in food is, is the carrier of the heat that, that, the, the, the, the what's in it. So even motor oil, if you just heat it, it'll burn. So no matter what oil it is, if you, if you're just heating it just to heat it, everything will burn.

Uh, it's, it's the, the food actually absorbs that heat when you're using, when you're sautéing or frying with extra virgin olive oil. The food is what gets cooked. So you, it, there, it, it will never, ever reach those temperatures of 450 and 500 degrees, even though those, it can, it can reach those temperatures.

Um, and so it's actually the total opposite where a, a [00:30:00] lot of fear of, um, of not being able, the reasons why you're, you shouldn't be able to use extra virgin olive oil. It's actually the total opposite. You should be using it. Now, cost effectiveness is where it might, where it might, is where it, it might hurt.

Um, using such a high quality olive oil-

Jac: like make eggs or, you know?

Dino: we make eggs, but I'll tell you one thing. Um, number one, you don't use that much oil to make eggs. Even when you do make eggs, um, uh, the way we've been accustomed to when we do eggs is the little bit of oil in the bottom of the pan, you pour that with the eggs on your plate.

So, and you'll notice that the, the, the fruitiness of the olive oil, the sweetness of the eggs, it just changes. It, it... High quality olive oil should help enhance the flavors of your dish, what you have going on in it, not, not diminish or add something [00:31:00] unpleasant to it, like an f- oily fussiness. It actually helps bring out the characteristics of what you're

Jac: That's so true. Even just baking, do you know? And I'm gonna expose my secret now to everyone listening. My secret, and I actually took it from my mom, is baking with olive oil. So when I was younger, do you know, and it was my birthday every year, my mom would always bake my class brownies. And every single year all my friends would be like, "Is your mom making her special brownies this year?"

And I'd be like, "She is." But no one ever knew what her secret was 'cause they were so, like, gooey. And her secret was baking with olive oil. Like, wh- who would've thought? So even with me, whenever I, I bake, I bake, like, banana bread. That's, like, my thing. I bake with olive oil, and that's the secret. And people, like, when you tell people that, they're like, "Olive oil?

Like, wouldn't that give it, like, an olive oil flavor? Like, it's supposed to be a sweet." And I'm like, "No, actually it doesn't, and you just explained why."

Dino: Exactly. Exactly. I mean, um, the, uh, the thing about [00:32:00] when, when baking with olive oil, like you said, you, you, you said a word, you said that it would be so gooey and so moist. Um, that's the, that's the difference between an e- extra virgin olive oil, baking with it, and a, a, a sunflower oil. Um, it, it helps, it, it adds moisture to the dish, so it, it makes desserts, like a brownie, like you said, it makes it more dense, but more moist, rather than fluffier but drier.

Um, so baking with... That's, that's all I grew up with, with any kind of dessert being moist a- and, and more dense. Um, and, and yeah, it just, it, it, it... And that grassiness that you taste when you taste it by itself, you never get that when you're putting it in food, because, um, that, that taste is only when, when tasted by itself.

But with food, it actually brings out [00:33:00] the taste of the

Jac: it's so true. And my other question too, do you know, is there like a meaningful dose like in terms of like the research on cardiovascular and anti-inflammatory benefits, like how much olive oil should people be consuming each day? And I'm sure you've seen like I feel like there's this whole like trend now of like the olive oil shots.

You know, like a lot of people are making like the shots, do a shot of olive oil every day. I mean, is there a benefit to doing a shot of olive oil versus just cooking with it and like putting it over your salad? Like what is, you know, what does that look like too?

Dino: I, I, the benefit of, uh, uh, aside versus, uh, cooking with it. To be honest with you, I, um, it, it, uh, I wanna say there, there's always a benefit to when you first wake up, it's the first thing that y- that you, you, you put in your

Jac: Interesting. Yeah

Dino: Which is the reason why you said, like, a tablespoon or a shot, is because, uh, there is a currently a health claim, [00:34:00] uh, that has been out in Europe where they have, uh, specifically said that an, a, an extra virgin olive oil of, of 250 milligrams per kilo of antioxidants, uh, uh, produced, that it can...

It has a health claim that a 10 ML of, o- o- of, uh, an extra virgin olive oil of 250 milligrams and up, uh, is what you sh- you should consume on a daily basis in order to get your daily health benefits of the, all those antioxidants. Um, so being that it's the first thing in the morning, I, I, I'm almost certain that being...

It, it, it can only help that it's almost like a jumpstart to- Mm ... to, to your, uh, body's metabolism and, a- and, and being that it's the first thing that you put in your mouth. Um, it [00:35:00] does make a big difference. Um, I mean, we have testimonials on a daily basis where we have customers tell us, "I've been taking a shot of your, uh, of your Frasso or your Olio Nuovo," which have very high...

And even our original, which has over 500, uh,

Jac: Yeah, what's like the, the, I guess, like most potent one you have right now?

Dino: Okay, we, there's three tiers. There's, um, our flagship, the one that we're known worldwide.

Jac: that one, I think. Yeah

Dino: wr- Yeah, that, that one is, is the, is the most balanced. It's, it's beautiful. That's what I use on a daily basis for absolutely

Jac: you know if you, if you ever need a taste tester to like come, I volunteer. It's trivia, I'll do it for free. Just keep that in mind.

Dino: Okay, good to know. Um, so, so that, that one our, our, our, as I call it, our flagship because that's the one we first started with, uh, oh, seven- almost 17 years [00:36:00] ago. Um, that one, uh, that has over 500 milligrams of antioxidants per day, so that's over twice the amount of what the European, uh, health claim requires.

Um, our, our Nuovo, which is exactly same varietal, same harvest of our, our flagship, but it's only week one exclusively, while our flagship is week two to finish, so it's gonna be more of a balance between pepperiness and fruitiness. Our Olio Nuovo, which is exclusively only week one, it's gonna be a little more peppery, maybe, uh, not as intense fruitiness or as a balance.

You're gonna get more of that peppery bite. That has over 700 in, uh, in antioxidants. And our Zoe, our medicinal, which is made by a totally different varietal, which is the one that we were discussing earlier, the Kalamata varietal, uh, that has almost [00:37:00] 1,400, uh, milligrams of antioxidants per kilo, uh, with, with 1,000 being just in oleocanthal.

Jac: crazy

Dino: Uh, while, while the Koroneiki, our, our, our original, has o- over close to 300, uh, in oleocanthal, which is still amazing. That's why, that's why, um, just any dosage amount of over 10 ML a day, um, will give you your daily dosage of polyphenols or antioxidants, uh, in, in your

Jac: Wow. Do you have that on a, do you have that on a daily basis? Like, what is your routine? I mean, and again, you grew up with all of this, but like, do you have like... I don't know, like what's your routine now? Do you have Zoe every day?

Dino: Personally, I, I have Zoe when, every so often when I come to work and I, and I remember. As of right now, I don't need it yet because of I don't [00:38:00] have much inflammation. But I'm sure when I'm, when arthritis starts

Jac: feel the difference?

Dino: I, I, I definitely, I definitely see a difference in, in taste. And because I've been using it all my life I, I, I don't wanna say I've noticed the difference in me because I've

Jac: your whole life.

Dino: so my whole life that I don't know what, what, what it is without it.

Jac: people said? You were talking about testimonials before and then I cut you

Dino: Oh my God. I, I have, I have customers, uh, coming in here telling me all sorts of ailments that, that, that might have had, um, that they're, they're dealing with. And within a week, a week and a half of consuming the ZOE, and usually the ZOE is consumed by, by older, older group of people because for two reasons.

Because the older group has

Jac: Arthritis and all that,

Dino: [00:39:00] inflammation due to arthritis and other issues that they might have. Um, and they're also on a stricter, stricter diet. So being on a stricter diet, they're not-- they don't, they don't use, uh, the other oils as, as much as somebody like me would use it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which I, I pretty much would get the dosage that the, the ZOE would give throughout the day because I'm consuming it throughout all my meals.

Um, so, uh, the, the, the ZOE, I, I would say, um, is, is something for s- restricted diet, not too many, not too much oil intake. Um, so you can get the, the, the most for, for the dosage, for the least amount of o- oil consumption and high inflammation. Uh, being that maybe that's why I don't have any inflammation because I-- all, all I consume [00:40:00] for breakfast, lunch, and

Jac: oil.

Dino: it's olive oil.

So being that I consume so much, it, it-- I, I've kept inflammation away. But the ZOE is more for somebody, like I said, a restricted diet where, um, their intake is minimal, or their diet, their food intake is minimal, and they wanna get their daily dosage in one, in one, uh, in one tablespoon versus throughout

Jac: Yeah. And do you know, would you say that you and your family pretty much consume like a Mediterranean-type diet? I always like to ask, like, what does your diet look like? Is there anything that you omit, that you don't include in your diet? Like, you know, we hear about gluten and dairy and

Dino: None. None. Everything, everything. A, a, a good Mediterranean diet should have a little bit of everything, in moderation of course. Um, but extremely high intake in extra virgin olive oil. Um, [00:41:00] it's, it's heavily based on that. Um, for example, the average Greek consumer consumes 30 liters of olive oil a year. The average.

Second come the Italians at 12, and, and so on. The average American consumer, last I had read, uh, it's i- on average it's like 500 mL, so less than a half a liter per person a year. That's all that is consumed. So as you can see, being that it's, it's, it's the number one fat that the, that a Mediterranean diet cons- uh, consumes, you can see the how big o- an importance it is of the Mediterranean diet when it is the main source of fat when it comes to oil-based or a- a- any kind of oil.

Uh, it's all plant-based, uh, fat because it's from the fruit. Uh, it's, [00:42:00] uh, um, monosaturated fat, uh, so it's, it's very easy for, for, for a body to, to break down versus s- uh, all these other types of oils that are, uh, very hard and much more work for, for the body to break down

Jac: Speaking of those oils, do you know, like how all those other highly processed oils, people who like, I don't know, just let's say cook with canola oil right now and like don't necessarily know that like that's m- not the healthiest oil to cook with, can you explain why?

Dino: Well, um, it's, it's not the healthiest because, I mean, it, um, like, like I mentioned, it ha- it's a polysaturated fat, so it's, it's, it, it takes much more work for, for the human body to break down. Um, and especially this time of age where it's... we're accustomed to not moving as much as we- Mm-hmm ... as maybe past generations used to.

[00:43:00] Um, it just d- it just doesn't help. Um, the extra virgin olive oil is, is a heart healthy, uh, type of, uh, uh, oil that, that provides so many other nutrients as well, hence the, uh, being, uh... And so many different types of antioxidants within it. Mm-hmm. Um, so it's, it's just, it, it, it's the way that it, that, that it comes out.

It's, it's... There's no chemical processing, unlike all these other oils. They have to be chemically processed in order for that oil to be extracted, versus a pure extra virgin olive oil has minimal processing other than a f- a cold press, which means it's kept under a certain temperature so that- Mm-hmm ... no, no added or no im- uh, impurities.

'Cause when you add heat to the extraction, uh, you, you [00:44:00] pull... you end up pulling out more oil from, from the olive fruit, but it's not the oil that is, uh, that comes out that is, that produces extra virgin. It's just plain, uh, just plain oil.

Jac: And you mentioned too, like you harvest at a certain point in time with the trees. Like, how does your harvest process differ from, I don't know, let's say some other like large olive oil manufacturers out there who may maybe wait until the olives are like more fully matured, therefore they're not gonna get as much of like the oleocanthal, but they're doing it obviously from the perspective of, of making money and, and profit,

Dino: That's right. Uh, that's where we different a lot. We, um, we're able, uh, doing it the way we do it, we, we control the timing because timing is everything. Uh, because every day the olive gets a day older. Uh, with... In, in, in a three-month span, the olive has grown from an, from [00:45:00] a, a teen to, to of old age by the end of the three-month span.

So for us, it's very important that we harvest at the right time when the olives are still young, where the olives have the most potential of antioxidants. Um, and, uh, and we, we focus in, in producing it within, uh, within eight to 12 hours of, of, of its picking because, uh, from the moment it gets picked off the tree, it starts oxidizing, breaking down.

So it's very important to, to, to press it and extract that health- that healthy olive oil right away. Um,

Jac: I'm learning so much. This is, like, so fascinating for me. Like, now I wanna go to, you know, like an olive oil, like, tree farm and just, like, observe the whole process

Dino: And it, the, and a lot of it you, you experience a lot of it and you appreciate a

Jac: [00:46:00] sure

Dino: uh, when, when, when you- it's very tiresome because we're- we wake up first in the early, early in the morning and don't get back late by the time we harvest, take everything to, to the mill, and, uh, and, and extract, uh, the

Jac: Yeah. But you love it, you know? Like, it's your pa- like, I can tell, you know? And it doesn't, like, it doesn't seem like work 'cause it's your passion, you know? Like, you love

Dino: it's a, it, it's, it's definitely our passion. I mean, you could say that olive oil runs in our blood. Uh, and, and literally, and we consume so much of it. Um,

Jac: legacy for your, you know, to your dad too, you know? Yeah

Dino: He, he, he, he, he was very proud at the time, uh, when we had started with his help, with his guidance. Um, he, he was very nervous because as you mentioned, uh, uh, a second ago, we focus, um, on, uh, on timing because we [00:47:00] wanna get the most out of the olive fruit.

So we sacrificed yield, because if we, if we had waited three months, same time as 95%, if not 98% of all, all, all the producers, we would be, we would be able to get double the amount of production. But we sacrifice quality. Um, uh, we, we, we, we sacrifice, uh, quantity for quality. Uh, but that's really important for us because that is the whole reason why extra virgin olive oil is known to be the healthiest oil to consume.

Because when you're consuming the right kind, um, it, it, it changes everything.

Jac: so true. Well, that's why you've been so successful. I mean, just the integrity of, you know, not only yourself, but of the business as a whole, and people see that, and, you know, and they, they respect it, and they honor it, and that's also why, you know, you've won all these [00:48:00] wonderful competitions and whatnot.

Um, but one question too, Dean. I know we're coming up on time. If you... So you've been in this industry for years and years, right? What's, like, one thing you wish you had known earlier that, like, may have saved you a lot of time? And it could be from, like, a business perspective or even just, like, I don't know, something you do every day in your process.

Like, what's one thing that you're like, "Man, if I knew that, could've saved me a lot of time"?

Dino: What if I had known

Jac: Don't think too hard. First thing that comes to mind.

Dino: Um, uh, w- Timing of harvest. Like, i-if we had n-if, if we had known even sooner how, how im- how important it is for, to, to, to harvest at the right time versus, versus what follow the, follow the, the pack, as they say- Yes ... as the majority do, [00:49:00] um, I, I think we, we would've, we would've ex- brought this, uh, our family's production to the US much sooner.

Um, and known that, uh, it, it, it's something that needs education, um, but is, is, is appreciated n- in comparison, um, to how we used to. Our harvest has transitioned and changed so much, um, due to all this, uh, uh, new, uh, studies and importance done on extra virgin olive oil. So, um,

Jac: Harvest time

Dino: harvest time, yeah, very, very important, um, in, in, in, and big part of, uh, helping to produce a high

Jac: Yeah. And like you said, I mean, all of the wonderful research that's coming out right now in terms of the benefits of oleocanthal, like you are in such a great spot because you have something that [00:50:00] 98% of the other olive oil producers don't, right? This incredible product that's rich in, in oleocanthal, and that again is very, very much needed.

Um, so kudos to, to you guys. But again, I'm your number one fan, biggest supporter here. You continue to just let me know how I can help spread the word, but I'm so glad I got a chance to sit down and, and speak with you today. But do you know, for people who want to pick up a bottle of Lakoniko, where do they go?

Dino: Uh, the best place to go is obviously, uh, plug your, your zip code on our, on our, uh, webpage, which that will give you the nearest, um, the nearest store that carries our, our olive oil. Uh, our- all our olive oil is, is prepared, uh, fresh to order, so, um, so when a store, uh, requires it, uh, you just be confident that you're always getting the freshest product, the

Jac: That's awesome

Dino: Um, and/or you can order online off our, off our website if, uh, if a [00:51:00] store is not near

Jac: Awesome. And I'll be linking that in the show notes as well. And my last question for you, and this is always my favorite question to ask, and that is, what does being well and strong mean to you?

Dino: Being well and strong is, uh, well and strong is doing as much as you can, um, to, to, to follow the path that you know is the right path, that we all know what we should be doing, what we shouldn't be doing. So it's, it's always fight- fighting the good fight in that you try to, to do the absolute best you can, uh, and be conscious of what, uh, as conscious as possible of what you're doing so that you're one, you're taking steps forward and in hopes that you're taking steps forward and that they're only helping in the, in the long run, uh, and minimize the

Jac: I love that. Beautiful. That's a song, Fighting the Good Fight, Dino. Great song. See, you nailed it. Well, I'm so [00:52:00] excited to share this with listeners. I learned a ton. I'm sure everyone else is going to as well, but I'm looking forward to meeting you at some point, whether I come to Virginia or you come here to Greenville, South Carolina.

Dino: would, we would love that.

Jac: have a bottle of olive oil.

Dino: can come here to our facility, um, or anybody that wants to come and visit, and you will get a proper tasting and education,

Jac: That'd be awesome

Dino: amazing products that, that, that you'll just be, uh,

Jac: I love it. I love it. And hey, next time, I mean next time, first time I go to Greece, I'm gonna come check out one of the farms too. So adding that to my list.

Dino: Right on the beach. So you, you'll, 

Jac: right there 

Dino: so a- after, after a good long, uh, harvest, you're able to go and relax on the beach

Jac: I love it. Do you know, well, thank you so much for your time. Uh, I'm looking forward to, to round two, but truly thank you for all the work that you're doing and the education in this space. It's, it's really awesome

Dino: Thank you so much for allowing us to share our family's passion and, uh, with you and [00:53:00] everybody

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Jacqueline Genova

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