🇬🇷 True Olive Connection, Kosterina (Greece), and Moresh (Morocco)

The True Olive Connection in Aptos, California, is advertised as a woman-owned business that specializes in supplying premier extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegar to the larger Santa Cruz and Monterey communities. The small shop is a ~9 mile bike ride from the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. It was founded by Susan Pappas, because she loved (and I suspect still does) EVOO. I can relate to that! I biked here from West Santa Cruz to visit.

The store was bright, and felt clean and vibrant. It stuck out to me because I have been in a few that have felt a bit stale, or even sad in the emptiness. That was not the case here.

The woman at the front was kind and quick to help me. I told her I was not interested in flavored oils or vinegar, and we immediately walked over to this section.

The olive oil in the top left corner is an early harvest, and it was the first she directed me to. She described it as aromatic, grassy, with hints of fruit, and interesting. I am finding that many descriptions of olive oil are similar, and often not useful to figuring out if I will like the oil. It would take someone with an extremely expert palette to describe how an olive oil tastes, and most of us probably do not have that skill. The extent to which we can describe an oil is by the peppery burn in the back of the throat, and then an overall liking or disliking of the oil. I say this knowing I am fully unqualified to make these judgments, and I do my best. I typically ask for the top 2-3 oils that the recommender would buy for themselves. I wound up purchasing the Olio Nuevo Early Pressed, which I am reading is a cold pressed Arbequina from California. I also purchased her favorite, the Koronokei from Crete, Greece. The store also had a collection of colorful hair and beard pastas I thought were brilliant.

If you are a fan of balsamic vinegar, the collection will not disappoint. An interesting thing I learned is that there is in fact white balsamic vinegar that is produced from white Trebbiano grape must and white wine vinegar.

While I have not finished these bottles, they will not last long. It could be that I was exhausted and hungry from over 24 miles of biking, or that eating my favorite things beach-side made it extra special, but these oils were the most delicious that I have had in a long time! The early harvest was fresh and light in a way that is hard to describe, and I have not experienced before. It absolutely has a bite to it. The Koronokei was equally fresh, however without the peppery bite.

I was surrounded by beauty this week. It was quiet, and without a lot of other people.

Based on all the fruit trees, from citrus to berries and olives, I did not realize that much of California has a Mediterranean environment. The sunsets are beautiful too.

Kosterina, Greece

Moving to another Mediterranean environment, the first olive oil I tried and finished was a white bottle, Kosterina, an early harvest that is cold-pressed in southern Greece. It has been tested at a polyphenol count of 578 mg/kg, and was voted silver in the world's best olive oil's 2025 and 2026 competitions. It has a peppery finish, with hints of herbs, green tomato and tomato leaf, and hot chili. I thought it tasted a bit grassy or musty, and a little bitter. I found it only slight peppery. I appreciate that the site has an actual certificate of analysis, akin to a lab test for olive oil, and that the bottle has a harvested date.

A harvest date of 2024 might be a little old, so I will need to buy again with a fresher date. The cap is also interesting, and the first kind of its type. It is akin to a small cork design, but made out of plastic. In practice, it provided a good pouring output that was just the right amount.

Overall, I found this olive oil alright. I would not turn it away, but I will wait until I buy it again.

Terry Delyssa and Moresh

I finished five bottles of olive oil in the last two weeks, and to be fair, the larger ones were already almost empty. I have already written about Olivina. The Terra Delyssa is a single-sourced Tunisian olive oil that was smooth and mild. It is made from Tunisian Chemlali and Chetoui olives, which are hand harvested and cold-pressed. I am reading they are produced with minimal water, and zero pesticides. While not the exact match, it was delicious. It is surprisingly easy to find in general stores, and is one I will want to always have on hand.

Moresh makes a single-origin oil from the Marrakesh region, and is known for low acidity and high polyphenol count. I did not take notes on the Moresh, as I consumed it too quickly. I love the marigold bottle, and the symbol of the hand with the eye. This is a Hamsa symbol, a symbol of protection that also signifies good fortune and health. This bottle is practical to not allow the light to enter, and I like the letters are embossed and extrude from the bottle. I am grouping it with the Kosterina because the spout is the same color and style, but a slightly different size.

Did you notice that CHO America supplies both Terry Delyssa and Moresh? The company was founded in Tunisia by Abdelaziz Makhloufi in 1996 to stop European companies from buying cheap Tunisian oil and bottling it under Italian or Spanish labels. The North American headquarters came to Houston in 2005, which gives me finally one reason to go to Texas. Just kidding. They have an interesting story. They expanded from original olive oils into a broader portfolio including Origin 846 (high-antioxidant unfiltered oil), Bella Del Sol, and Fork & Leaf (more cooking and baking oils), and then added organic dates, and cosmetics and charcoal. It is strange to read about this, and realize this kind of model applies to many products that we see in the supermarket. They look differently, however the underlying producer is the same. You could never tell by glancing at the bottles in the aisle at the store. They are technically two separate brands, but managed with the same vertical integration model. CHO handles growing, milling, testing, and bottling. We can use the QR codes to trace the oils back to the exact harvest.

The Metaphor of the Lighthouse

I saw, and thus thought about, lighthouses this week. They can be seen as solitary, and perhaps lonely and quiet places. However, think of their purpose. They are sovereign in their existence, but also providing service to others. They are a symbol of safety and danger. They signal the location of a safe harbor, but also a stopping point for a ship to not traverse into waters that are too shallow, and hit rocks. They present foundational stability. But to be a lighthouse is to be alone, and exposed to the full thrust of the elements. The oncoming ship cannot have the safety without the boundary of rocks. What I found myself asking is if the lighthouse has purpose without the ship. If the ship is too far away, it is lost at sea. If it is too close, the energy is so high-intensity that it can blind you. The safety is in the middle ground, where the light guides, and you are far enough away to respect the power behind the structure. 

This picture was taken of me, and I made this pose without thinking much about it. I think to often see through our own storms and support others, we have to find vertical strength, direction, and elegance that is much larger than we physically are. That often means turning away from requests to fold into boxes that we have outgrown. That often means independence that can be isolating, but it also means freedom to explore and find personal and intellectual clarity. A ship without a lighthouse is lost, but a lighthouse without a ship retains its essence and sovereignty. I will remember that.