Last week Neos Kosmos attended Fine Food Australia, the leading trade exhibition for the country’s food industry, exploring products from over 1,000 exhibiting brands showcasing general and speciality food, catering and hospitality equipment, baked goods, coffee, tea, dairy, meat and seafood, organic and free-from, liquor and more.

One of the most praised products with distinction was an extra virgin olive oil from Corfu, purely distilled of the Koroneiki variety, Neolea Olive Oil. This was not the first time Neolea has stolen the hearts of numerous foodies and professionals around the world, as its quality has been awarded several times in top international olive oil competitions.

What sets this oil apart however, is not only its explosive yet mild flavour and modern packaging, but the story behind it.

Neolea was founded by Dutchman Bart Jan Manten who fell in love with Greece at a young age after vacationing there. The idea was born in Corfu, the second largest Ionian island where Corfiots and Venetians created an olive tree cultivation tradition that still exists, centuries later.

“The light is different in Greece; life is more colourful, passionate and most of all tasteful,” Bart tells Neos Kosmos.

“My first visit felt like turning on your first colour TV!

“People make more time for each other, enjoy life more it seems, and at the core of it all is food and eating with family and friends. Life revolves around food and at the centre of it all is olive oil.”

When Bart first tasted real extra virgin olive oil he remembers thinking “what have I been eating all these years? Olive oil that doesn’t only look green but most importantly tasted green!”

The aroma of artichoke, green tomatoes and oregano just stuck with him and he decided to dive deeper into the world of olive oil and quickly discovered some of its flaws, realising that most extra virgin olive oil was sold in bulk to large producers worldwide who then blend it with lesser qualities only to lower their cost price.

The idea for Neolea was born, founded in 2014, and Bart became committed to producing the highest quality product together with local farmers, giving it a Greek identity of its own and rethinking the presentation of olive oil by designing a unique packaging that doesn’t only make the whole shelf come to life, but steals the show in your kitchen at home.

By using modern techniques in the extraction process, Neolea is literally reinventing extra virgin olive oil from the production to the packaging, and even when it comes to its use.

Even though Neolea has been available in Greece since 2014, it was only six months ago that it became known in Australia thanks to Greek Australian Andrew Lessis who tasted it during a holiday in Greece and fell in love with its flavour.

“My father was born there and in 2017 my wife Selina and I travelled to Greece to get married,” Andrew tells Neos Kosmos.

“We not only fell in love with each other all over again but I also felt reconnected with my roots. During our stay there I saw Neolea EVOO and tasted it at a local restaurant. Although I am Greek and although I thought I knew about olive oil more than most, I was blown away with the flavour and packaging.”

The day after, the couple paid a visit to the Neolea office where they met Bart and were inspired by his story and decision to move to Greece.

“I just felt the strong urge to share this with as many people as possible back in the country I call home,” Andrew explains.

“We became the importer for Neolea and for the past six months we’ve been putting smiles on people’s faces.”

The duo are ready to storm the markets, which is why they decided to launch Neolea at the Fine Food Australia tradeshow in Melbourne, where they garnered overwhelming reviews.

“Bart came over to support us and to explain everything there is to know about the production process to the visitors of our booth and we’ve been having so much fun,” Andrew laughs.
“There’s nothing better than inspiring people and Neolea does exactly that! We couldn’t be happier with the reception in Australia.”

For more info, visit www.neolea.com.au

(L-R) Andrew Lessis with his wife Selina and Neolea Oil founder Bart Jan Manten.