The product that most represents our gastronomy is, without a doubt, extra virgin olive oil. Spanish liquid gold, which has yet to be recognized for its full value and dimension.

• Catalonia: the kingdom of the arbequina
• La Senia, home of the ancient olive tree

My first memory of extra virgin olive oil is from almost 40 years ago, when I was 8. My parents had been given a 5-litre bottle by some of their clients who were precisely from the area of ​​the DO Les Garrigues. When I tried it, I noticed that it had nothing to do with the oil I was used to, much stronger and with a slight spiciness in the aftertaste... but I liked it. Since then, I always wanted that oil to be the one I had at home, there was nothing to beat it.

One of my favorite recipes was Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) with sugar and a sandwich. It was a delicacy that I never tired of enjoying.

That taste that left you in your mouth was prolonged in time and in memory, and I still remember it perfectly today. And when I became an adult, I just wanted to know how that wonderful olive nectar was produced. Because it seemed incredible to me that, from such apparently weak trees, a golden juice could be produced that had so much energetic power when you tasted it. On Made in Spain Gourmet The selection of the EVOO has not been easy, because the varieties are wide, and also the qualities. We continue discovering some wonders that when you try it, you fall in love again and you can't wait to see that there is so much quality of EVOO throughout the Spanish territory. And so we must rethink our selection between Xavier, Sveta and myself, because for us, the most important thing is to recommend wisely, on the one hand, but emotionally and with the heart and soul, on the other. Since enjoying what the nature of these Spanish olive trees offers is something difficult to explain until you enjoy it in the first person.

Catalonia: the kingdom of the arbequina

If you were born in Catalonia or simply live there, EVOO is synonymous with Arbequina, the most cultivated variety and the one that has best settled in Catalonia for centuries and centuries. that you know very well Lam Chueng Ping, owner of Castle of the Lord, a farm in Lérida that made him fall in love with its capricious climate "you can observe the four seasons in a single day", something that seems to be made to measure for the olive trees, which enjoy the cold, the humidity, the rain and from the heat, there is no more versatile tree. Located in Bobera (Lleida), a privileged area where the climate has created a balanced oasis and which produces a spectacular Early Harvest EVOO, El Luxury They gave it a name, because it really is a luxury to enjoy it from the beginning of November, with that particular emerald green color. Production limited to just 6.000 500ml bottles, I must say that it is an honor for Made in Spain Gourmet be able to bring it closer to its customers in our online gourmet store. With its wooden packaging that perfectly protects it from the sun.

It is an aromatic, soft and fruity oil with a perfect balance. On the palate the oil has complex flavors of artichoke, apple and freshly cut almonds. In the aftertaste, there is a bitter touch that reminds us that it is an early harvest and quality EVOO.

An EVOO oil that is history, born from a family project and the passion to preserve this symbol of gastronomic culture of the Mediterranean diet.

Not far from there, but already in the province of Tarragona, in the Priorat, we meet the family Canaan, of Canadian origin, and visionaries at the end of the 90s of the last century of investing in these lands to cultivate Cariñenas and Garnachas and giving rise to what is now one of the most prestigious wine-producing areas in the world, Priorat.

Lovers who are from the area, they also knew how to optimize the 135 olive trees over 300 years old that included the Clos Figueras Estate. In this case of the DO Siurana, an exquisite, delicate and harmonious Arbequina olive. Balanced like the orography of the area, which in very few square kilometers offers an impressive disparity of mesoclimates, which give the olive complex and harmonious flavors that we later find in the early harvest EVOO in October, such as wild spices, artichoke, fig leaves, apples and even freshly cut almonds. And how could it be otherwise, in the aftertaste we find a bitter touch that guarantees its quality.

Love for our country and Priorat, they knew how to understand it and have been able to interpret it, thanks to the Cannan family, Christopher, the father and Anne Josephine, his daughter who maintains the same joy and passion for continuing to innovate and continue projecting the area to the world.

And if we move further towards the coast, also in the province of Tarragona, in Morell, we found the family Cata, with a long agricultural tradition and, most importantly, the instinct and vision that, with patience, something could be done that would last over time. They led in the area through the creation of a joint mill between several farms, the revitalization of the area as a reference for the cultivation of Arbequina EVOO.

Mas Montseny is one of those companies that we fall in love with Made in Spain Gourmet, because they know how to be ahead of their times, and create new trends to remain competitive. Innovation is in the genes of the Catá family, and its current Manager Roger Cata  has the same vision conquer the world with its wonderful extra virgin olive oil. With various EVOO, offering an organic coupage oil (arbequina and arbossana) such as oli mare, and two arbequina monovarietal marvels such as Oli Padri and Premium.

La Senia, home of the ancient olive tree

Our first station ends at the literal border of Catalonia with Aragon and the Valencian Community, a place full of contrasts, lots of orange and tangerine trees (the best in the world), but also a small forest of some 35 thousand-year-old olive trees and as many hundred-year-old trees (very centenarians), that the family Hut has wanted to develop a project that makes the EVOO from this area a world reference of the highest quality: One Thousand & One Verd. Pampering all aspects, a very well-kept estate, and a production that reaches the highest possible quality, and that when you try their EVOO, you realize that perfection does not exist, but one can approach it.

Joining efforts to unite tradition and values ​​with innovation and technology is what excited us about your project. And that gets as a reward the harmonic mix of the territory; Cutting of Securities. Extracting the fruit of the ancient olive trees. Understand old values ​​with a fresh vision. Expert craftsmen who purify their product to its last stroke. Even the smallest detail that makes the difference.

Above all, emerges the Arbor sacris, which with a production limited to 800 bottles of 250ml and as many of 500ml, transmit that the ancient olive trees, of the La Farga variety, well cared for and pampered, provide an incomparable olive juice.

It is an oil with body, balanced and clean. Fruity on the palate, with a subtle bitter touch in the aftertaste, and a pleasant progressive spiciness. On the nose, the aroma is reminiscent of olive leaves, almonds. Tomato, and fresh herb. The secret to a unique gastronomic experience.

The other wonders to taste are the Arbor Senium, a coupage of Farga and Morrut, delicious, and the Cassoli, which recovers the Arbosana variety from the Tarragona area.