How do pre-orders work?

The only way to get our oil this year is by pre-ordering. It works like this:

 

1) Go to www.pitinoagricolo.com/shop and add items to your basket as you would normally. Hurry before it runs out!

2) Checkout like you would normally.

3) We bottle our oil in Italy straight after the harvest and send just one pallet to the UK.

4) We prepare all the orders in one go and post them out from the UK.

5) The oil arrives with you before Christmas!

6) Your friends and family enjoy a truly unique product and you are their favourite person!

 

Deadline for pre-orders: Sunday 17th November. Stock will be limited. All UK orders delivered with Royal Mail Tracked 48 service.

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I placed a pre-order in autumn 2024, when can I expect to receive it?

We finished harvesting and pressing the olives that goes into fulfilling all our orders on the 10th November. We're currently bottling the oil we’ve just harvested. All our pre-orders will be shipped on a pallet to the UK at the end of November. As soon as these have arrived in the UK, we post out individual orders to customers with Royal Mail Tracked 48. Our current estimate is that orders will be posted the first week of December. When we put your order in the post you will receive an email with tracking details. Please allow 3 to 5 working days for delivery with Royal Mail.

If your order is set to arrive too late for you, we can process a refund, just drop us an email at pitinoagricolo@gmail.com.

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If I miss this batch will I have to wait till next year?

Any orders placed after the 6th December cannot be guaranteed to arrive before Christmas. Any orders placed after this date will be posted when we ship our next batch of oil to the UK in the New Year. 

 

Why can I only buy through pre-order?

We're committed to keeping prices as low as possible for our customers so that you are only paying for the highest quality extra virgin olive oil. Pre-ordering means you avoid paying for warehousing, logistics, and customs charges and that we can reduce emissions associated with delivery. It all enables us to plough any profits from sales back into restoring our valley and its old trees to full productivity and health, as well as helping to fund the restoration work on our farm buildings.

 

Its a challenge running a business with only the two of us across Italy and the UK while keeping up with demand for oil from old and new customers and without compromising on quality. We really appreciate your continued support and patience and we hope you enjoy the oil this year!!!

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Why don't you sell re-fill pouches?

We have thought about using a variety of packaging solutions in order to reduce our emissions and waste. Equally important to us is the quality of the oil, and the flavour and health properties of olive oil is heavily affected by packaging. This means more than just keeping the oil away from heat and light… Crucial is blocking oxygen from seeping through the packaging into the oil, and preventing aromatic compounds responsible for a considerable part of good olive oil's flavour going the other way. This is referred to as barrier properties, and it is the single biggest problem faced by bio-based or recyclable plastics.
 

Aren't re-fill pouches more eco-friendly?

There is currently no bio-plastic or monomaterial pouch that can offer the barrier properties needed to satisfactorily prevent oxidation of the oil and the loss of aromatic compounds. 

Some companies sell oil in semi-recyclable pouches that offer mediocre barrier properties, but we don't believe in paying for the best oil and receiving oil that is not at its best.

Moreover, it is impossible to know by taste whether the oil has increased in free acidity and therefore lost a major proportion of its health benefits. Polyphenols also decline when small amounts of oxygen seep through the pouch. To combat this, many companies will sell oil that has been milled along with black pepper to give it a spicy or peppery flavour that tricks the consumer into thinking they are consuming a fresh, high-polyphenol oil. 
We could sell our oil pouches that do protect the oil inside, but they involve the use of plastic and aluminium laminates that make these pouches non-recyclable. Although glass recycling requires a lot of energy, dark glass protects the oil perfectly, recycling is widely available, and there is minimal waste. 

 

Why do you use dark glass bottles?

Many companies sell oil in clear bottles to showcase a green colour that has sometimes been achieved through the addition of chlorophyll (or just leaves) during processing, or even by adding chlorophyll to seed oil in the worst cases. Olive oil deteriorates when exposed to light and heat, altering the oil's chemical, physical and organoleptic characteristics. Even without light, the green colour of fresh olive oil will naturally diminish over time, and light rapidly accelerates this process. So, if olive oil is sitting on a shelf in a clear bottle and is a green colour then either (1) it is within a couple weeks of having been produced and shipped after the harvest in October, or, more likely, (2) the oil is not made solely from olives. We use dark glass because keeps out the light and it's thickness helps maintain a stable temperature.

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