A Little Local Flavor

Juice pulled from the fruit of a Mediterranean staple, blended to produce a subtle signature taste, the delight of discerning palettes. No, it’s not time to dig out your copy of Wine Tasting for Dummies — I’m referring to the newly anointed delight of epicureans and dietitians alike: olive oil.

The Queen Creek Olive Mill, the first and only olive oil producing mill in Arizona, is proving that Italian olive tree varietals - used primarily in the production of olive oil – along with Spanish and Greek olive trees can flourish in Arizona’s unique desert environs.

The Mill’s oils, along with several other local product lines housed in an unassuming storefront, might seem at first a meager draw – that is until you take the tour. Owner, Perry Rea, along with director of sales and marketing, Rob Holmes, and the rest of the team at the Queen Creek Olive Mill, invite tourists to hear the Mill’s gospel of high quality control, natural ingredients and artful blending.

They evangelize, or agrivangelize, about living close to the earth and consuming natural, locally produced goods at a time when more and more of the state’s farmlands are being subverted by encroaching developments.
A nutritional staple since biblical times, olive oil is experiencing a North American revival as scientists continue to discover its health promoting properties. But at the Mill, you’ll quickly learn that not all varieties are created equal.

The “extra virgin” mother of all olive oil grades is produced at the mill through a cold press mechanical process free of high temperatures and solvents. It is the highest quality oil and the only variety to maintain all of its substantial natural nutritional properties. And since Arizona is free of the olive trees’ natural predators, the staff maintains that no pesticides are used, though the oil is not certified as organic.

But what really sets this native product apart from similarly high quality imported extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is its signature flavor. “The flavor of our oil has everything to do with Perry’s sense of taste and flavor,” says Holmes. Rea blends the varieties produced at the mill by taste in order to consistently create their signature brand, Tuscan Estate.

“It is a handcrafted boutique extra virgin olive oil with a grassy, fruity start and peppery finish,” Holmes continues. “You can only get that kind of quality when you can buy it directly from the manufacturer or you have one nearby.”

Along with their signature EVOO, the store also carries a variety of other flavor-infused oils from lemon and blood orange to a dipping EVOO comprised of oil, imported Italian vinegar and seasoning. You can also find local products from around the state: stuffed olives from other groves, pistachios grown by the monks in Cochise, and olive-oil-based bath and body products blended by Rea’s own teenage daughters, among other items.

And if that’s not enough to lure you into making the pilgrimage to the mill, patrons will soon be able to enjoy a Mediterranean picnic in the grove. Del Piero, a restaurant specializing in cold Mediterranean cuisine, organic local ingredients, and a build-your-own-box lunch structure is opening up on the premises.

So whether you’re coming from home or passing along on a journey route, the Queen Creek Olive Mill is one pit stop you won’t want to miss.

Photos courtesy of Queen Creek Olive Mill

If You Go:
Queen Creek Olive Mill
25062 S. Meridian Rd.
Queen Creek, AZ 85242
www.queencreekolivemill.com
Mill store: 480-888-9290 (call for store hours and tour schedule)
For group tour booking: 480-756-6998

Queen Creek Olive Oil can be purchased at AJ’s Fine Foods, Sportsman’s Fine Wine and Spirits, at the Mill store or online, and is used by more than 60 local restaurants and resorts.

Sidebar:
Natural Goodness
The olive oil purists at the Queen Creek Olive Mill are gaining converts daily as they educate the steady stream of visitors that tour their mill every week.

Owner Perry Rea and Director of Sales and Marketing, Rob Holmes, alternate leading the tours that outline how the olives are grown in the adjacent grove and then pressed at the mill into their signature Tuscan-style oil.

It is both the high quality of the fruit along with the cold press process of extracting the oil without heat or solvents that distinguishes extra virgin olive oil from other grades. The result is a healthful cholesterol-free, monounsaturated fat containing anti-oxidative properties that combat cancer-causing free radicals.
Conversely, the fruit used to produce other oil grades is overripe, moldy or toxic in some way and therefore requires extra refining through the addition of heat and solvents. This process in turn destroys the nutritive value of the product and in the case of many refined oils results in harmful artery clogging fats.

The colorless, tasteless oil is infused with a little bit of extra virgin oil and marketed in stores as pomice olive oil, extra light olive oil, light olive oil, pure olive oil, and olive oil respective of how much extra virgin olive oil has been added.

Finally, virgin olive oil is essentially extra virgin olive oil that has an oleic acid build-up of 1 to 1 1/2 percent and can no longer be marketed as extra virgin. “Nobody goes to the store to buy half-rancid olive oil,” says Holmes, “but they will buy a virgin olive oil and it’s the same thing.”

HIGHROADS Home