The results of the world’s largest olive oil com­pe­ti­tion were announced by Curtis Cord, the Olive Oil Times pub­lisher and NYIOOC pres­i­dent before a packed room of 200 jour­nal­ists, olive oil pro­duc­ers and food indus­try pro­fes­sion­als, and an esti­mated 7,500 who watched the live stream of the event.

Producers ner­vously waited to dis­cover the results. ​“This was a tough year,” said Mili Kus, who won a Silver for her Croation organic Oliva Lucia extra vir­gin olive oil in last year’s com­pe­ti­tion. ​“There was a severe drought. The trees weath­ered it well, but the fla­vor of our oil was really dif­fer­ent from what we were expect­ing.”

Cord began his announce­ment by cred­it­ing atten­dees for their part in bring­ing about what he called ​“a mod­ern under­stand­ing of the value of high-qual­ity olive oil,” and for ​“help­ing to pro­vide us with the health­ier, bet­ter prod­ucts we need.”
See Also:The Best Olive Oils for 2018

Before Cord began call­ing pro­duc­ers on stage to receive their award, he reminded the audi­ence of the dif­fi­cul­ties pro­duc­ers face in pur­suit of their craft: ​“We are not here only to cel­e­brate the win­ners of this com­pe­ti­tion, but to applaud, rec­og­nize, and express our grat­i­tude to every olive oil pro­ducer com­mit­ted to mak­ing the best prod­uct they can.”

One thou­sand entries were eval­u­ated by a panel of 18 expert judges from 13 coun­tries dur­ing the week, until just hours before the press con­fer­ence. NYIOOC orga­niz­ers closed reg­is­tra­tion in early March after an unprece­dented 1,000 entries from 27 coun­tries were reg­is­tered.

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition is the largest olive oil qual­ity con­test and its annual list­ing of award win­ners is widely con­sid­ered the most trusted guide to the year’s best extra vir­gin olive oils. The com­plete list of award win­ners is pre­sented on the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils.

Producers from Italy sub­mit­ted the most entries with 253, fol­lowed by Greece with 152, Spain with 151, the United States with 132, Portugal with 67, Croatia with 45, Tunisia with 38, Australia with 28, Turkey with 27, Brazil (13) and France (12). There were entries from Chile, Lebanon, China, South Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, Slovenia, Japan, Egypt, Uruguay, Israel, Morocco, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Algeria and Argentina.

More brands from more coun­tries than ever before par­tic­i­pated in the NYIOOC. ​“The sharp upward trend in qual­ity from pre­vi­ous years is con­tin­u­ing,” Cord remarked. Producers cheered and smiled as they ascended the stage to receive their hard-earned awards.

Producers from 22 coun­tries received awards — two more than last year. 53 per­cent of the entrants won over­all, includ­ing 152 Italian olive oils, 93 Spanish oils, and 73 oils from the US. One-third of Greek sub­mis­sions took home awards, and 40 out of 45 Croatian olive oils won. 11 Tunisian olive oils and 12 Turkish oils gar­nered awards. More than half of Portugal’s entries suc­ceeded in the com­pe­ti­tion.

Eusebio Garcia de la Cruz Pascual’s fam­ily has been craft­ing olive oil for five gen­er­a­tions. Their Amphora extra vir­gin olive oil, a hand­crafted blend to cel­e­brate 145 years of mak­ing oil in ​“El Cerrillo,” Spain, was awarded Gold. ​“It’s a fusion of tra­di­tion and inno­va­tion,” Pascual remarked about his organic olive oil.

Richard Meisler, who owns San Miguel Olive Farm in California’s Central Coast, beamed as he held his sleek tro­phy. ​“Producing olive oil is hard work,” he said. ​“And this helps remind us why it’s worth it.” San Miguel’s Tuscan Gold Nectar and Tuscan Gold Supremo both received Gold.

Kus was relieved and thrilled; Oliva Lucia won a Gold award after all. ​“I’m sur­prised,” she said. ​“Now it’s time to cel­e­brate.”

The com­plete results are pre­sented on the offi­cial NYIOOC results web­site, bestoliveoils.org.