Rancho Azul y Oro ~ Surviving the Dream

How NOT to Store your EVOO I was recently asked by a friend what the best way to store olive oil is.  Of course, my eyes wandered over to the sight above, the numerous bottles of EVOO filling our counter top.  Pretending I was not seeing what was across from me, I proceeded to provide her with the following information about what can diminish the quality of the olive oil: LIGHT:  Keep your olive oil away from light (natural or otherwise).  Store in a dark cabinet or closet to prevent exposure;  You will notice that in the worst case scenario above, the olive oil is directly in the light. HEAT :  Keep your olive oil away from any source of heat.   Again, you will notice that in the worst case scenario above, the olive oil is directly next to the stove. COLD:   Do not refrigerate or freeze. AIR :  Seal your bottles of olive oil tightly.  Do not store your oil with pourers left in the bottle.  Air can get in even mor...

Can You See Our Vision or Does Smoke Get in Your Eyes? In the olive oil business, we are always looking for innovative ways olive oil can be used, which leads to creative thinking as to what type of olive oil to create in the first place.  Many producers offer the basics, an EVOO, a citrus olive oil, and an herbed olive oil. A few blog posts ago, I quoted George Patton, who said, "If everybody is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking." We are one of the smallest olive oil producers amidst a sea of large olive oil producers, so we need to distinguish ourselves from the rest of the producers, try harder, work faster, and visualize concepts others have not yet tried.  Many times, customers ask what can be made with our oils.  We provide suggestions on our Facebook Page  as well under "Mealtime Inspiration" on our blog page, but there are times when some just do not understand our concept. Such is the case with our smoked olive oil.  We beg...

We're pleased to share that Rancho Azul y Oro has been honored with three medals in the Napa Valley Olive Oil Competition: A Silver Medal for our Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a Silver Medal for our Orange-Infused Olive Oil, and a Bronze Medal for our Lemon-Infused Olive Oil. With this announcement comes the end of our competition year, a full-court press to finish bottling and labeling, taking advantage of every opportunity to market and share the oil with you (Translation: Buy Olive Oil). This stage also causes us to review and reflect upon how we can improve things next year, call it our New Year's in May: Avoid rookie mistakes:  Review established procedures each year and follow them to avoid errors we made when we were newbies that shouldn't be happening.  Most mistakes happen when we're in a hurry and there is a price to be paid for haste. Refine and Rework:  Crafting recipes to infuse olive oil is rocket science, combined with art, as are many bus...

We got word late last week that we received four awards from the Central Coast Olive Oil Competition.  We were awarded a Silver Medal for our Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a Silver Medal for our Lemon-Infused Olive Oil, a Bronze Medal for our Orange-Infused Olive Oil, and a Bronze Medal for our Smoked Olive Oil. We are attempting, ourselves, to make sense out of the inconsistencies between the different judging panels.  The O/C member of our team reviews results with the plan of doing things better each year, and scrutinizes every fact provided but just cannot reconcile the results.  Some might suggest we ought to just celebrate the 12 awards we've received this year, with an additional two Best of Class Awards, but yet, we are left SOH (shaking our heads), as they say.  There are producers who submitted and did not win awards, so we are thrilled that, on the whole, all of our oils are award-winning. So, what mountain is left to scale this year?  One of the...

It was announced today by the Yolo County Olive Oil Competition that Rancho Azul y Oro won a Gold Medal for it's Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a Best of Class Medal for our Arbequina Blend, Robust Intensity.  AyO was also awarded a Silver Medal for both its Lemon-Infused Olive Oil and its Orange-Infused Olive Oil. The Yolo County Olive Oil Competition is the second largest olive oil competition in the U.S., second only to the L.A. Cunty Fair Wine and Olive Oil Competition.   Discover California's newest gold for yourself, why not try some of our award-winning olive oil?

It was announced on March 24th that Rancho Azul y Oro won a Silver Medal for its Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and a Gold Medal for it's Orange-Infused Olive oil, which was also awarded Best of Class for Infused Olive Oils and Best of California Flavored Olive Oil.  We were also awarded a Gold Medal for our Smoked Olive Oil. As if that wasn't plenty, today, our Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil was awarded a Silver Medal from the San Joaquin Valley Olive Oil Competition. Why not reward yourself and discover California's new gold and try our olive oil? Thanks for the recognition, it is all quite an honor.  Now, back to bottling and getting all that farm work done!

The California Olive Oil Council announced the winners of its 2017 Olive Oil Competition ( 2017 COOC Competition Winners ).  We were thrilled to be among the producers who were awarded a silver medal for our 2017 Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Since this is the governing professional organization for olive oil producers in California, they only accept entries that are EVOO, which eliminates any flavored oils.  Once an oil is either co-milled with or infused with anything, it is no longer EVOO. We have entered our EVOO and our flavored oils in additional competitions but were pleased to start off 2017 with this announcement. Congratulations to all of the winners!