Healthy Fresh Quality SHOP TODAY
SHARING OUR BEST,
WITH YOU
Healthy Fresh Quality SHOP TODAY
SHARING OUR BEST,
WITH YOU

Who we are

A family-run company

We humbly began Basil Olive Oil Products in 1997 from out of our kitchen. Our vision was simple: to share quality food products from Greece that would knock your socks off! Years later, and we are still a small family-run business and continue to champion our back to basics philosophy. This includes supporting our farmers, organic practices, zero waste (where we can) and above all, advocating for quality ingredients. Our brand, Golden Olive®, carries in its name our original love, olive oil; however, we have extended our family of products to include olives, balsamic and wine vinegars, Corinthian raisins, Sultana raisins, honey and sea salt too. We also produce our own in-house rose and extra virgin olive oil moisturizer, and body bar, liquid and laundry soaps, all made with our organic extra virgin olive oil. We are passionate about what we do, and happy to share the best of the harvests with you.
— With love, Basil and Helen Koutalianos

Meet the Owners

Basil & Helen

Basil and Helen_small

Basil and Helen began over 20 years ago with the ethos that fresh is best. They are deeply connected to protecting the earth through organic practices, and by honouring their family lineage. In honour of tradition, all their products are named after family members. In fact, their family name, Koutalianos, has quite a history of its own, as Basil shares:

“My father, Panagiotis Koutalianos, would tell me stories about a famous ancestor of ours by the same name. Born in 1847, Panagiotis (Panagis or Panais) was born on the small island of Koutali (now Ekinlik, Turkey) in the Bosphoros Sea near Istanbul.

Panagiotis Koutalianos was a man of Herculean strength—a true legend in Greece. So much so, that he was named the era’s strongest man and even has a song in his honour (one known by many Greeks).

My father would tell me tales of strong men and how he believed one was born every hundred years. This stayed with me. Years later while in Greece, I met Father Nikodimos of Mount Athos. It so happens, he gave me a copy of Panagis Koutalianos’ autobiography. The book was written in New York and was dated 1916. The story filled in the gaps from my father’s tales. The young Koutalianos had worked in the shipyards and had single-handedly pulled up a vessel’s anchor, which ten men couldn’t muscle to move. Word spread of his amazing power.

In the years that followed, he was a weight lifter and wrestler; he fought over 300 men and was never defeated. He was famous for his karmaniola headlock and airplane throw. He is recorded as having stopped a moving train in its tracks and having ripped a lion’s mouth with his bare hands. He traveled the world, and entertained and competed in Europe, and across North and South America and spent some time in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was even decorated by Queen Victoria of England for his incredible strength.

In the late 1990s, I traced my roots to a small village called Koutalis (renamed after Koutali Island) in the northeast region of Greece. While I was there I met a ninety-three year old gentleman, Vassilis Psarras. He was eight when Panagis Koutalianos died in Constantinople from an infection to his legs. Vassilis spoke of Panagis with great admiration. He was strong and was never ill, he said. For Greeks, Koutalianos’ strength remains unmatched, and will not be forgotten.”

OUR VALUES

Each one of our products is named after a family member, even our company name! (And no, there is no basil in our olive oil, just the owner’s first name.)

Family First

All the food we bring from Greece (with the exception of our sea salt) is organically farmed and certified by DIO Greece at the time of harvest and production. This ensures that we share the healthiest ingredients with the least environmental impact with you!

Simply organic

We do our best to support farmers in Greece that are equally focused on producing the best, from their farm to your table.

Farmers Count

We do our best to encourage less waste when it comes to our packaging. For this reason, we supply our restaurants with our organic extra virgin olive oil in stainless steel containers, and use unfiltered olive oil in our soap production. Everything serves a purpose and nothing goes to waste!

Zero Waste

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