It all began in the year 2015. After moving to Turkey from his home country Austria, one of our owners, Andreas, tasted "real" olive oil for the first time in his life. What ensued can only be described as a love affair. Previously, he had been confined to the modest pleasures of regular blends of supermarket olive oil. But what he had just tasted was something else entirely. He closed his eyes. "Mmmmm!" The fruity, a bit bitter and slightly peppery taste whose layers slowly radiated through his mouth, nose and the back of his throat, took him straight into the olive orchards and he developed a warm sensation of and a deep and instant appreciation of life's treasures. Olive oil straight from his newly wed wife's cousins olive orchard. It had arrived to their house in unassuming golden coloured tin cans - "finally - this year's harvest" Sezen exclaimed. "Look at the beautiful color and take in the smell", she advised him and immediately started preparing a bowl of salad with ripe tomatoes, feta cheese, wild oregano, harvested in the hills around Izmir, a pinch of salt and generous sprinkles of the delightful olive oil.
The family history of Sezen, his wife from Izmir, located at the beautiful Aegean coast of Turkey is closely intertwined with the olive fruit. Overnight, her great-grandparents had to migrate from Crete and Lesbos in Greece to the Turkish capital of olive oil, Ayvalik during the tragic population exchange during the 1920s. Her Great Grandparents did not speak a word of Turkish at the time, but brought with them their love and expertise for olive oil. Olive oil had been a treasured magic potion against illness, an elixir for wellbeing and rejuvenation in Sezen's family's house. Her great grandma had taken care of a small olive garden and still her cousin was taking care of the same orchard and every year he was sending a few cans of delicious oil to all relatives.
Andreas wanted to share his experience with his friends and consumers in Austria. With his background in food marketing he developed a brand, found an established olive oil producer and contacted a known supermarket chain. But the olive oil he had offered to the Austrian supermarket was not what had made him fall in love with olive oil in the first place. The verdict of the supermarket purchaser - "nothing special" was blunt and a stinging reminder that Andreas had trailed off course. The oil he had sent to the supermarket turned out to be just another version of the same mass market, standardized olive oil that he had previously been accustomed to - blended beyond recognition, hiding the individual characteristics of each olive oil beyond recognition. It was not anywhere close to the outstanding olive oil out of Sezen's cousin's olive orchard, full of family memories and not at all what Andreas had had in mind, when he had first embarked on this journey.
​
"Let's make our own olive oil" - the echo of the cheering in the house was still ringing in Andreas' ears even after a few days. "An olive oil that we can really be proud of, honest, transparent and simply delicious - that we can stand for with our own name." ​
Together with Sezen's father Alaeddin, an agricultural engineer, Sezen and Andreas went about reviving old parcels of olive land - orchards last cultivated centuries ago. The orchards were overgrown, a dormant paradise waiting to be re-discovered. They spent months cutting the woodwork (after getting the necessary licenses of course!), pruning trees and planting new seedlings. After years of steady effort, a productive land that had once been dormant for so many years, was finally revived and can now flourish again.
​​
And here it is - the product of our dreams and labour:
Puranda - premium extra virgin olive oil. The still green olives are being harvested with great care, pressed within 8 hours of being harvested to guarantee the freshest quality of our olive oil. Polyphenol levels are really high, while the taste is still balanced, with notes of fresh herbs and hints of fruits and a bit bitter, peppery sensation in the back of your throat.
And now you also know why this high-quality means the world to us. Something to be proud of and for all of us to enjoy!
