Curated Luxury from Authentic Sources

A Collection Shaped Personally

I grew up in a small village on a small Mediterranean island, surrounded by olive trees, herbs, honey and people who made food very differently from the way much of it is produced today. They worked in small quantities. They knew their land. They had methods and little secrets passed from one generation to another. And they believed that quality mattered more than volume. I think that is where my appreciation for authentic food really began.

When we started working on Gourmet Groceries, the idea was simple: to find products like these and make them available to people around the world who might never otherwise have the chance to discover them. Before the website went live in 2015, we spent almost three years travelling, visiting producers, tasting products and asking questions. We wanted to understand how something was grown, when it was harvested, how it was produced and who was behind it before deciding whether it belonged in our collection.

Around that time, we began discovering high-phenolic olive oils. We immediately felt there was something exceptional about the category and believed in it long before it became widely known. What began with a small number of producers gradually became one of the most important parts of Gourmet Groceries.

Today, we work with more than 70 producers across the Mediterranean. I still find them through exhibitions, recommendations, relationships and our travels, and I still personally make the final decision.

The rule has never changed.

“If I don’t like it, I don’t approve it. If I wouldn’t consume it myself or give it to my family, it doesn’t belong in Gourmet Groceries.”

And the search isn’t finished. There will always be another producer to meet, another product to taste and another Mediterranean story worth discovering.

Stelios Ellinas
Managing Director

High-phenolic olive oil has been part of the Gourmet Groceries story almost from the beginning. We approach these oils as products of extraordinary agricultural and sensory character shaped by olive variety, terroir, early harvesting, milling decisions and the skill of the producer.

Over the years, we have developed direct and often exclusive relationships with some of the category’s leading producers, giving our customers access to rare and limited oils that are difficult to find elsewhere. Today, Gourmet Groceries carries the highest-phenolic EVOOs and the largest collection of them worldwide.

But the number of bottles has never been the point. The knowledge behind them is. That is why we publish harvest information, laboratory analyses, certificates, production details and in-depth guides, giving you the opportunity not only to trust our selection, but to understand it for yourself.