Dappled sunlight splinters through a glass of summer wine, chilled by once-upon-a-time ice that has melted in the midday heat. A honey bee lands on the glinting ledge to sip the naughty nectar. She buzzes on the surprising liquor and flies away delighted with her hunt’s conquest, through an olive grove of 4,500 years of wisdom, and roots that invisibly disappear into the deep history of Messinia. These are the olive groves of Mesimeri EVOO.
Overlooking the Messinian Bay, the ancient Mesimeri olive trees stand in the local village of Paniperi. The family fields extend along the southwest of Messina under the abundant Mediterranean light. Mesimeri in Greek means Midday, inspired by the childhood summers of the creators of this enchanting, award-winning, Koroneiki single-varietal EVOO.
For Greeks, summer ‘Mesimeri’ is something sacred, a nostalgia that we adults feel palpably. Back in our childhood days, you couldn’t call your best friend at midday, everyone was resting. You waited eagerly for 5-6 pm to come so you could go out and play. When we hear the chorus of cicadas, and taste chilled watermelon, we’re taken back to the lethargic hours spent laying under the shade trying to sleep, unable to under the constant drone of our snoring grandparents!
Mesimeri Extra Virgin Olive Oil is cultivated by the land’s inheritors Kostas Spyropoulos and Angeliki Markopoulou who are the founders of this poetic olive oil. He, a French literature graduate and a farmer's son, she, a chemical engineer and ex-corporate executive. Their common love of flavors and memories framed by the family land shaped a vision for the Mesimeri brand inspired by the blissful tranquility of a long,
Greek summer’s day. They preserved a natural production line, as a simple evolution of the cultivation processes that have been in place for centuries. Nourished by the mild wet winters and hot dry summers of the local micro-climate, they let the trees go about their business with minimal interference and only organic fertilization, making Mesimeri a substance that is pure, honest, and fine.
The hand-picked harvest comes at the very end of long summers, in early November when the olives wait to be lovingly taken in nets and carried to the olive oil mill (the same day) where their fragrances and aromas are released with all their nutrients intact. It’s not long before the olives are returned to the summer fields, from farm to table, in the signature Mesimeri bottle, to be enjoyed as they drizzle new memories onto the plates of many.
Medium fruity, bitter and spicy with a tomato leaf aroma, complemented by freshly cut grass, herbs, nuts, and a hint of citrus notes, Mesimeri is a poem, an ode to the Greek Olive, sung around the world.
The creative team behind the brand combines a spectrum as complex in detail as the olive oil itself, creating something with art as well as passion, to carry the olive from the village of 270 inhabitants to the world. Mesimeri took the Quality Awards Gold Award at the Canada International Olive Oil Competition in 2021.
They have a simple ethos that reminds us that we are all made of earth, and will all return to the earth eventually, after we have played in the beauty of summer afternoons, delighting in the Mediterranean sun.
Suggested Food Pairings
Mesimeri EVOO pairs perfectly with Greek Salad, Leafy greens, Steamed Vegetables, Legumes, Beef & Chicken, Seafood, Pasta, Tomato sauce, Semi-hard cheeses, Chocolate Desserts, and Fruit Salads.
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