By Lisa Radinovsky from Greek Liquid Gold.
Greek olive oil information was hard to find in English just over a decade ago. The high quality and health benefits of Greek extra virgin olive oil were one of the country’s best-kept secrets. Then, in 2016, greekliquidgold.com appeared. The Greek olive oil world finally had its own English-language website. At last, consumers could discover its richness.
The Greek Liquid Gold: Authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil website went on to share approximately 400 articles (and counting) with consumers in 222 countries. Due to frequent republications of those articles (with permission) in the USA, Europe, and Australia, the number of people reached by Greek Liquid Gold’s articles in the last decade is impossible to calculate. What is clear: there is now an obvious place to find out about Greek olive oil.
Eleni Sakellis, Assistant Executive Editor at The National Herald in the USA, sums up the site’s wide range:
“Greek Liquid Gold is a treasure trove of information about Greek olive oil and is a great resource for anyone interested in the latest olive oil sector news, the health benefits, and even recipes featuring Greek olive oil.”
Greek Liquid Gold’s dedication to careful reporting on everything from olive oil producers’ stories to agrotourism and food tourism destinations has been recognized internationally with awards, praise, and inquiries from consumers and professionals from the USA to the UK, from Norway to Australia, and from Greece to South Korea.
That recognition reaches the very top of the international olive oil world. Jaime Lillo, Executive Director of the International Olive Council, puts it simply:
“Over the past ten years, Greek Liquid Gold has made a valuable contribution to raising awareness of olive oil and enhancing readers’ understanding and appreciation of its qualities.”
An eventful decade for Greek olive oil
A great deal has happened in the Greek olive oil sector over the past ten years. As before, too much Greek olive oil continues to be sold in bulk and exported for blending and bottling under foreign brand names. However, there have been encouraging developments. Greek olive oil brands regularly capture top awards for their extra virgin olive oils (EVOOs) at major international quality competitions, where judges appreciate their exquisite flavors and aromas. Naturally flavored Greek olive oil condiments have also been claiming top spots at international competitions.
In addition, Greek extra virgin olive oil is frequently lauded for its wide range of exceptional health benefits. Scientists from Greece and abroad have been making important, evidence-based discoveries about what those benefits are, and the ways particularly healthful early harvest high phenolic EVOO works to confer many of those benefits.
Greek innovators have been inventing fascinating new products, machines, and techniques. The country’s designers have been creating distinctive packaging that highlights the value of the Greek liquid gold inside it. And Greek exporters have been selling the nation’s olive oil around the world. Greek Liquid Gold has published original reporting on all of this news, always alongside photos.
Alkiviadis Kalabokis, President of the Panhellenic Exporters Association, has seen that reporting support the industry:
“Over the past ten years, Greek Liquid Gold has helped bring the story of Greek extra virgin olive oil closer to an international audience, highlighting its quality, diversity, and strong export potential. Reliable and dedicated initiatives like this are very important for strengthening the international image of Greek olive oil and supporting one of Greece’s most emblematic products.”
Sharing Greek olive oil information across the globe, with a human touch
Greek Liquid Gold’s reporting is never AI slop. Readers will not find quick little pieces meant to pad a website or provide places to insert links. All the site’s articles are original essays conceived, written, extensively revised, and edited by a human being. They arise from interviews, conference presentations, company and mill visits, and events, most of them not covered by any other writer in English.
Alexandra Kicenik Devarenne, International Olive Oil Consultant and Founder-Director of the Extra Virgin Alliance, sees the difference that makes:
“Greek Liquid Gold fulfills an important need with its thoughtful English-language articles focusing on the Greek olive oil world. Lisa’s first-class writing brings this part of the industry to life, helping capture U.S. attention for the often under-appreciated excellence and passion of Greece.”
Joseph R. Profaci, Executive Director of the North American Olive Oil Association, highlights what Greek Liquid Gold offers professionals in the U.S.:
“Its clear and concise reporting on relevant news and trends has opened an invaluable window into the Greek olive oil industry for those of us working in the U.S. market.”
How did an American literature professor from the USA end up focusing on Greek olive oil?
An American living with her Greek husband in Crete, Lisa Radinovsky, teamed up with the Athens-based Twin Net Information Systems Ltd. in 2016 to begin a new era in English-language reporting on the Greek olive oil sector. Why and how did this happen? She explains.
“After teaching American literature classes online from Crete for several years, I decided to turn to writing. Searching for freelancing opportunities, I saw that Olive Oil Times was soliciting articles about the Mediterranean diet and related topics. That seemed relevant to my life in Crete, so I wrote a few articles for Olive Oil Times. To my surprise, the editors soon asked me to cover the Greek olive oil sector for them. When I replied that I knew nothing about that, they said I could learn.”
“They were right,” continued Radinovsky. “My work on a PhD in English had not only prepared me to teach American literature; it had also equipped me with research, analytic, and writing skills. However, I was astonished to discover that in 2015 that there was no general English-language information source about Greek olive oil. (Wasn’t this one of the country’s most important traditional products and exports?) By interviewing Greek olive oil professionals, producers, millers, and judges and consulting Greek agricultural papers, I managed to learn more than Olive Oil Times could publish.”
Why create a website devoted to English-language Greek olive oil information?
As Radinovsky explained, “I thought it was a shame that the excellent results of hard work by dedicated Greek producers and professionals like those who had taught me so much were largely unknown outside Greece. Inspired by devoted Greeks’ passion for olive oil, I felt that it was unfair that Americans associated olive oil with Italy, when much of the oil bottled in Italy and sold under Italian brand names comes from Greece. As a former professor accustomed to sharing what I learned, I decided to create a website devoted to remedying these problems—a website I considered long overdue.”
She created greekliquidgold.com. And Radinovsky continued gathering Greek olive oil information throughout the decade, with interviews and mill and grove visits from Chania to Halkidiki, at tasting sessions from Rethymno to Athens, at conferences organized by the International Olive Council, Greek olive oil professionals, or professors from Harvard, Yale, or the University of Athens. She shared what she learned on social media and airplanes, at grocery stores and Princeton University. And she kept publishing, on greekliquidgold.com and in Greece Is, Greek Reporter, The National Herald, The Greek Herald, Neos Kosmos, Wikifarmer, Pappas Post, The Mediterranean Lifestyle Magazine, Olive Oil Professor, Oliveoil.com, Seabourn Club Herald, Tradewinds, and F Magazine (in South Korea).
A reliable source of Greek olive oil information, with growing impact
Emmanouil Karpadakis, Secretary of the Exporters’ Association of Crete—one of the professionals Radinovsky met frequently during those years of conferences and collaboration—has followed her work:
“As a proud collaborator, I have witnessed Greek Liquid Gold’s unwavering commitment to bringing the excellence of Greek olive oil to international audiences with reliability and authenticity. Congratulations, Lisa Radinovsky, on this remarkable milestone and a decade of meaningful impact.”
Radinovsky strives to increase that impact in various ways, including a website upgrade in 2024, SEO enhancements, and outreach in person, on paper, and online. Thousands of Greek Liquid Gold website business cards have been distributed at hotels and conferences in the USA and Greece. Thousands of followers on Facebook, on Instagram, and on LinkedIn stay up-to-date on new articles, with others reached in Facebook and LinkedIn groups. And since March, hundreds of newsletter subscribers have been receiving free monthly updates.
As Business Partners, a publication of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, put it in the introduction to an interview with Radinovsky:
“A Pennsylvania native living in Crete, Dr. Lisa Radinovsky is the founder of Greek Liquid Gold, the only wide-ranging English-language website dedicated to the Greek olive oil world. Since its launch in 2016, she has established herself as one of the foremost writers on the topic, promoting Greek olive oil and its industry internationally.”
Thanks to Effie Papadopoulou for the photo of a woman near the Greek flag looking down on olive groves next to Lake Kremasta, and to Kostas Blazakis for the photo of a visit to an ancient Makri olive grove. Photo taken by Lisa Radinovsky.
*Originally published on Greek Liquid Gold: Authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (greekliquidgold.com). See that site for recipes with olive oil, photos from Greece, agrotourism and food tourism suggestions, and olive oil news and information.
Dining and Cooking