Author Archives: Kristy Davies

WAGFG 2025 Producer of the Year

In Western Australia we have what’s called the Western Australia Good Food Guide (WAGFG).  It’s a well regarded WA organisation that independently reviews hospitality venues throughout our state.  Each year they list their top 100 restaurants plus the top venues within that 100.

There are also awards for Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Best New Restaurant etc. These are all awarded via independent and anonymous reviews, over multiple visits.

Included in the list of awards is the annual Producer of the Year. This award is actually voted by the Chefs nominating their favourite producers.

Well… the 2025 Producer of the Year is Great Southern Groves.

We are absolutely thrilled to be awarded this honour. There are so many amazing producers in Western Australia and to receive this award is very humbling.

We truly love supplying to the hospitality industry in WA, plus our many other customers through retail and online. Thank you to all of you, from the bottom of our hearts. 

If you would like to know more about the WA Good Food Guide, their Top 100 Restaurants and the full list of awards, click the link below.

WA GOOD FOOD GUIDE

More steps towards sustainability

At Great Southern Groves, we’ve always believed in creating not only exceptional Australian olive oil but also a better future for the environment. Over the last 2-3 years, we’ve taken meaningful steps towards becoming a more sustainable business, driven by both consumer demand and our own commitment to protect the planet we all share.

Why Sustainability Matters

Our industry, especially olive oil production, is severely impacted by climate change—high temperatures and low rainfall affect the quality and quantity of our olives. That’s why it’s essential for us to adopt sustainable farming practices and move towards more eco-friendly packaging.

What We’ve Done So Far

We’re excited to share the steps we’ve taken towards sustainability:

Bulk Packaging Change: We’ve replaced plastic cubes with eco-friendly bag-in-the-box packaging for our bulk olive oil. This shift has helped us eliminate a substantial amount of plastic from our business. Our new packaging is not only more sustainable but also practical—each box comes with its own tap, is easier to store on shelves, and can be conveniently posted or sent anywhere across Australia. Plus, it keeps the oil fresher for longer!

More Eco-Friendly Tins: We’ve replaced our 3L tins with laminated paper labels with pre-printed tins. This simple change has helped us eliminate thousands of meters of non-recyclable backing material that would have ended up in landfill.

Refill, Reuse, Repeat: We encourage our customers to refill bottles from our 15L boxes or 3L tins. To make this even more beautiful and functional, we sourced a modern amphora-style bottle made of high-quality glass. Paired with a sleek chrome pourer, these bottles are perfect for refilling and display on your kitchen bench.

The Art Series: We took our commitment to sustainability a step further by launching the Art Series bottle. This series features artworks by talented Australian artists. Just before Christmas, we released the second bottle in the series by Western Australian artist Emma Blyth. Fly High showcases the White-Cheeked Honeyeater landing on a Banksia.

Thank You for Your Support

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our wonderful customers who have embraced our sustainable and recyclable packaging. Your support helps us move forward in our journey to make olive oil that not only tastes great but also contributes to a healthier planet.

We remain committed to reducing our environmental impact and appreciate your continued support in helping us reach our sustainability goals. While these steps may seem small, we truly believe that, together, we can make a lasting difference.

Great Southern Groves 2024 Silver Award

How Olive Oil is Judged: From Chemistry to Taste

For anyone passionate about high-quality olive oil, knowing how it is judged can deepen your appreciation for premium quality olive oil. Australia olive oil competitions uphold strict standards by combining scientific analysis with expert tasting. Here’s are the key steps in assessing an olive oil’s quality and what these evaluations mean for both consumers and producers.

Step 1: Chemical Testing

Chemical analysis begins the judging, focusing on four main indicators:

% Free Fatty Acid (FFA): A low FFA suggests good grove and processing practices. For an olive oil to be called ‘Extra Virgin’, is needs to have a FFA% under 0.8%.

Peroxide Value (PV): This measures oxidation levels, giving insights into the oil’s freshness and storage conditions. The maximum peroxide value for an Extra Virgin Olive Oil is 20 with high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil having a peroxide value below 12.

UV Absorbance: This test helps assess the oil’s preservation state, indicating whether it has started to degrade.

Polyphenol Content: Polyphenols affect both taste and health benefits. High-polyphenol oils offer robust flavours, while lower levels result in milder, delicate oils, categorized as ‘R’ (robust), ‘M’ (medium), or ‘D’ (delicate).

These chemical measures provide a reliable foundation to gauge quality before tasting.

Step 2: Sensory Assessment

Australian olive oil competitions use the Australian Olive Association’s 100-point scoring system. This includes an assessment of the oil’s freshness, aroma, and flavour complexity, balance, and aftertaste.

AROMA being good fruit intensity, complexity & absence of faults.

PALATE including good fruit intensity, the bitterness & pungency, balance and absence of faults

COMPLEXITY balance, including bitterness & pungency.

This judging process gives consumers confidence, knowing the oil’s quality is confirmed scientifically and through expert taste, helping them find the ideal oil for their culinary needs.

Great Southern Groves – Tuscan Style, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and PRIMA Extra Virgin Olive Oil have both won SILVER at the recent, 2024 – WA Olive Awards.

These awards are run annually by Western Australian Olive Association. Judged by world class olive oil judges, overseen by moderator, Isabella Okis.

The judge’s description of our oil:

Tuscan Style Extra Virgin Olive Oil

(In all of our bottles, tins and boxes)

AROMA: Fresh and strong aromas of tomato leaf and thyme.
PALATE: Pleasant creamy palate; grassy, tomato leaf and tomatoes transfer from aromas.
COMPLEXITY: Balanced finish with some persistence.

Tuscan Style Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chemical Analysis:
FFA%: 0.2
Peroxide: 6
Polyphenol: 382

PRIMA Extra Virgin Olive Oil

(Limited release – SOLD OUT)

AROMA: Floral bouquet aromas together with rocket and capsicum.

PALATE: Fruits transferred well with added banana and tomato leaf and herbs with mild bitterness and pungency.

COMPLEXITY: Balanced and complex.

PRIMA Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chemical Analysis:
FFA%: 0.2
Peroxide: 6
Polyphenol: 349

A new Art Series bottle coming in 2024

We’re excited to reveal the latest painting for our Art Series refillable bottles.
‘Fly High’ a stunning commissioned piece by WA artist Emma Blyth.

Following the success of Silvereye in the Grove, Emma has once again captured the essence of our beautiful Western Australian birds, this time a white-cheeked honeyeater in the banksias.

We also work with graphic designer Greenhouse Studio to convert the painting to a file suitable for glass printing… Mosman Glass printers, where the piece is permanently painted/ printed onto our unique bottles from Plasdene Glass-Pak.

These bottles are filled with award winning Australian olive oil —perfect for unique, thoughtful gifts! A perfect way to blend art, sustainability, and practical gifting.

2024 Olive Oil Prices

Have you seen the news? Or heard about the price of olive oil increasing worldwide, including Australia?

This is for a number of reasons…

Australia is an olive oil loving nation and we consume more olive oil than we can produce each year. This shortfall is then covered by imported olive oils, mainly from Spain, Italy and Greece. With Spain being one of the biggest producers.

In recent growing seasons, Europe, particularly Spain, has experienced a significant decline in olive oil production due to drought and other environmental factors. This decrease has driven up olive oil prices in Europe, which has also impacted prices globally, including in Australia.

In addition to this, many countries that traditionally purchase their olive oil from Europe are now looking to other markets, such as Australia to fulfill their demand.

Locally, olive oil production has been mixed. Many of our olive producers have also experienced challenges with weather and pests. This all unfortunately leads to prices being pushed higher and higher.

The good news… Great Southern Groves had a pretty good crop in 2024 and we hope to have enough olive oil to see our customers through the whole year. We have also created a 3L tin subscription for our customers to overcome two issues. One, a price saving for our customers and two, the subscription means we can plan ahead and make sure we have enough olive oil for our loyal customers.

Subscriptions can be set for the amount of olive oil you use… one month, two months, even every six months.

We hope that you keep enjoying your Great Southern Groves, Extra Virgin Olive Oil in all of your cooking and baking.

Are you storing your olive oil correctly?

Did you know that Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a fruit juice! As olives grow on trees, they are classified as a fruit. So technically the liquid you squeeze out of them is a juice.

Unlike other fruit juices, olive oil is shelf stable and doesn’t need to be kept in the fridge. However, like most fruit juices, it doesn’t improve with age. The Best Before date on our Extra Virgin Olive Oil is 2 years from harvest date, the closer you consume it to pressing, the healthier it is for you.

Oxygen, heat and light are the three main enemies of olive oil. So, to combat these…

Keep the lid on tight.

Keep it away from any sources of heat.

Keep it in the dark.

What about keeping a bottle on the kitchen bench? Two things to consider are the type of bottle and where you keep it. 

A thick, dark glass or ceramic, 500ml bottle or smaller is perfect for keeping your oil fresh.  Our decorative bottles are designed for this purpose. We chose them as they have particularly thick and dark glass, serving as a protection for the olive oil. If you are keeping the bottle on your kitchen bench, the location is also important.  Near the stove is handy however, the heat can cause your olive oil to deteriorate quickly both in flavour and nutritional value.  You can certainly store the bottle stove-side, just be aware of the length of time it takes you to empty the bottle. If you use only a small amount over a week, then consider only filling the bottle each week to the amount you use. Also remember to wash out your bottle each time you purchase a new 3L tin or every two to three months.

Buying olive oil in bulk like the 3L tin and 15L box? Decant the oil into your gorgeous bottle on the kitchen bench and then pop the bulk container back into the cupboard, in the dark. Please make sure the lid is replaced tightly back on your tin.  Ideally you want to use the olive oil in your 3L tin within 6 months of opening. As for our new 15L Bag in Box… these are perfect for storing large quantities of olive oil for longer periods of time as they eliminate light and oxygen exposure.

Our recyclable dukkah pouches

If you have been following our stories on social media this year, you will see we are making a concerted effort to become a more sustainable business.

One way to do this was to review all of our packaging. We have been working closely with one of our packaging suppliers, Myerton Packaging, to make our packaging more sustainable or recyclable.

Our old dukkah pouches were plastic lined, paper pouches with a label applied. Due to multiple materials, these pouches were not recyclable. The amount of waste created by the labels is also alarming. All of the backing from the labels also goes into landfill.

Myerton Packaging were supplying new Roll n Recycle pouches to a number of their other clients and we thought our dukkah would look amazing in them too.

These pouches are made with a single material and are a special ‘roll and recycle’ design. When your delicious dukkah has finished, you roll the pouch up, affix the sticker from the back of the pack and then place it in your kerbside recycling bin.

We are super excited with the sustainably of these new pouches and also the gorgeous new package design.

The different types of oil in the market place

Put simply, Olive Oil is actually the juice of the Olive fruit. The way in which the olives are processed then determines the grade of oil and all the types of olive oil you will see on the supermarket shelf.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the oil extracted from the olives mechanically, without the use of excessive heat, has not been refined or had any chemicals or solvents added. Extra Virgin olive oil also possesses no defects so there are also very strict chemical tests that it must pass. We are lucky in Australia that around 95% of all olive oils produced are Extra Virgin.

Virgin olive oil is a lower grade of extra virgin that has started to oxidize.

Pure and Light Olive Oils have undergone some sort of refinement. Any refining removes the flavour, aromas and any goodness like the antioxidants out of the oil. Light only refers to the flavour as light olive oil has the exact same calories as Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Pomace oil is not really heard of in Australia due to the small quantities we produce – Pomace is the waste product at the end of processing Extra Virgin. It is all the crushed pips and skins. There is a very small amount of oil in the pomace and in countries like Spain and Italy where there is so much of it, it is commercially viable to use heat and use solvents to remove this last little skerrick of oil. This is then refined and becomes your pure and light olive oils.

Lampante olive oil is usually the oil that is made from old olives or olives with defects. This is then processed and refined to be used industrially. Originally it was “Lamp” oil – hence “Lampante”.

We recommend you always buy Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It has the best flavour and is the most beneficial for your health.

Sustainability in the kitchen

Over the past few years we have been investing in making our business more sustainable. One of the biggest challenges is packaging. There are now so many more options available but not all were an easy swap or the packaging didn’t quite fit our needs.

We are super excited that in 2023, one step we will be taking to become more sustainable is changing over 20L plastic drums to 15L Bag in the Box. We supply our hospitality customers with this bulk olive oil size, but increasingly, customers are purchasing for home use too.

Although we would often repurpose our 20L drums, unfortunately we couldn’t reuse them. These drums are not always recycled either. We then set about finding a filling and capping machine to change over to the Bag in the Box packaging that many people would know as a “good bag” for wine. This change will see our bulk oil reduce to a 15L but will mean they are easier for transport and shipping to our non hospitality customers. The cardboard outer is completely recyclable. The inner bladder has a tap that is recyclable and while the actual bag is not recyclable yet, they definitely mean less landfill.

Some other added environmental benefits is less fuel/ transport of packaging down to our grove. The 20L drums would fill large pallets and we would need to send 3-4 pallets at regular intervals. The new Bag in the Box packaging is all flat packed meaning over a years worth of packaging can be sent in just a few pallets.

There are also some added benefits for your olive oil too. The Bag in the Box packaging means less light and oxygen will get into your olive oil. Keeping your delicious olive oil fresher for longer. We hope that more and more home customers will now opt to purchase a 3L tin or 15L Bag in the Box for home. Buying in bulk not only means you save $$ on your oil, you save on trips to the shop and save multiple bottles from landfill by refilling a bottle. Saving our amazing planet can seem very overwhelming for an individual but small changes such as this, makes a big difference.

Spring in the Grove

To deliver our Olive Oil from our grove to your plate is a year long process.

Between July and October the trees are maintained, pruned and other maintenance is carried out on the farm.

By mid November the trees are flowering and pollination occurs.

In January the fruit starts to develop and through February and March the fruit continues to grow and the stone starts to harden.

Around April the oil displaces the water in the fruit and in late May to early June we harvest and then process our olive oil.

So right now it’s Spring in the grove and our trees are full of flowers and little fruit developing. Olive trees produce fruiting stems called ‘inflorenscences’. Each inflorescence can contain 10-20 flowers depending on the type or cultivar of olive.

Lots of olives self pollinate or cross pollinate through wind however, bees and other pollinating insects can be seen on the trees.

Each of these little flowers will produce the olive fruit that will become our next seasons Extra Virgin Olive Oil.