Announcing a Special Offer for Friends of Be Well Buzz...from the Olive Oil Hunter

But what’s so special about “fresh-pressed” olive oil direct from the harvest...and why can’t you find it in the U.S.?

Regardless of where you shop, do you know the most important secret of how to choose the best-tasting extra virgin olive oil? It’s very simple...

Olive oil, unlike wine, does not improve with time. Just the opposite! It’s at its peak of nutritional perfection and flavor immediately after it’s pressed! Olives, after all, are a fruit, and olive oil is a fruit juice. Just as with any other fruit juice, it’s most delicious when fresh-pressed, and that’s when you want to enjoy it.

But virtually none of the fresh-pressed olive oil from Italy—or any other great olive-growing country—ever makes it to our shores. The reason is because shipping by air is prohibitively expensive. As a result, virtually all the olive oils sent to the U.S. travel here by molasses-slow cargo ship. Adding insult to injury, many oils are shipped months—maybe even a year!—after pressing.

Moreover, olive oil is not shipped as a perishable food. To save money, producers send it in container ships along with scores of manufactured goods—cars, machinery, whatever—and the oils are subjected to brutal conditions, and, worst of all, delays.

There are flavor-sapping delays at every port of call on its long ocean voyage, while sitting at anchor in the harbor waiting for customs inspections and FDA approval before admittance. Then there are further delays at the docks, in trucking transport, and in warehouses before eventual distribution to local stores. Then these oils may sit yet additional weeks, months, or even years on shelves under fluorescent lights, which also destroy flavor and precious, perishable nutrients.

And now you know why the producers of ordinary olive oils seldom if ever print a “Harvest” date (sometimes also called the “Pressing” date) on their labels. Sure, they will print a “Best Used By” date,” but not the harvest date. I suspect they want to extend shelf life as long as possible. They realize that savvy olive oil lovers prize freshness above all else, and they don’t want to give you any hint as to how old and stale their oils may be after their torturously slow journey from overseas to your shopping cart.

I can prove this to you right now. If you have a bottle of olive oil in your kitchen pantry, please check it to see if it has a harvest or pressing date on the label in addition to the “Best Used Buy” date. If you bought your oil in a supermarket or gourmet store, I can almost guarantee that it does not have a harvest date!

And since there is almost never a harvest date on the label of ordinary olive oils, so many of us foodies can be seduced by fancy bottles and pretty labels only to bring home mediocre olive oils whose flavors have faded and dulled—and sometimes have even turned rancid.

I must confess that whenever I’m in a supermarket, I cannot resist going over to the olive oil aisle. When I see all the bottles conveniently missing their harvest dates, I glare at the whole bunch and think, “Why didn’t your makers put a harvest date on your label? Did they care so little about how fresh my food will taste? Shame on them! Yes, I see you boast a Best Used By date. Big deal!!!”

My goodness, to an olive oil lover like me, a Best Used By date is nowhere near good enough! As a former professional chef, I’m not interested in crowning my creations with something merely “edible” that may also be dull, faintly stale, and thoroughly mediocre!

No, I want the freshest-tasting, most recently pressed, most outrageously flavorful artisanal olive oil I can find, one that will gloriously enhance all the foods I pour it on, one that will make my dinner guests say, “Wow! These roasted vegetables are fabulous!” Most of all, I want my oil direct from the harvest at its peak of flavor and nutrition—without a long supply chain of middlemen adding months or years of delay before I can even open the bottle!

And that is precisely the extraordinary, fresh-pressed, best-in-the-world olive oil I’d like you to experience. I’m betting that the harvest-fresh olive oils that I secure from gold-medal-winning family farms––and then rush to your table by jet plane and special delivery truck—will make all the other olive oils you’ve ever tasted seem hopelessly dull and lifeless by comparison.

All I ask is the opportunity to prove it to you—to let you be the judge—with my $39-Bottle-for-a-Buck offer.

Your Bottle-for-a Buck has just arrived in the U.S. direct from the new harvest, and it’s ready to ship right now, direct to your door. I can’t wait for you to experience, perhaps for the first time in your life, the indescribably delicious flavor of authentic olive oil straight from the harvest.

What will your first sensory experience be like?

Here’s how Larry Olmsted, the award-winning food and travel journalist, describes our oils in his New York Times bestselling book, Real Food/Fake Food:

“I now get most of my oil from T. J. Robinson's Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, and every time I open a bottle, my kitchen literally fills up with the smell of fresh crushed olive—the scent explodes out of the bottle. Just breaking the seal transports me to Italy or Spain or Chile.”

I can’t wait for you to try it—and savor it for yourself on all your favorite dishes!

That’s why I’m extending this special invitation. I invite you to accept, for just $1 to help with our shipping cost, one of my precious retail-sized bottles to experience for yourself the miracle of flavor that such rare, fresh-pressed oil will bring to your seasonal salads, pastas, grilled meats, delicate fish, and so many other dishes. But I must ask you to RSVP now. Once these reserved bottles are gone, I will have no more to give away!

A magical night for an “olive oil virgin”

You may wonder how I became so obsessed with finding and bringing to your table the freshest, most flavorful and nutritious olive oils from the world’s most honored artisanal producers. Allow me to share my story, as I believe it will help you experience even more enjoyment from the $39-Bottle-for-a-Buck I’d like to send you.

My name is T. J. Robinson. In past years, before I found my current calling as “The Olive Oil Hunter,” I was an award-winning chef and food journalist. One autumn evening several years ago, during my first tour of Sicily while on assignment for a food newsletter, I was invited by a local olive grower named Matteo to attend an olive oil harvest party.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Matteo explained that in Sicily, as in other olive-growing parts of the world, “We locals go crazy for fresh-pressed oil.” He said that Italians call it ‘novello,’ and they love it so much, they throw parties at harvest time each year to celebrate its arrival.

He asked if I had ever tasted fresh-pressed olive oil, squeezed right at harvest time. I told him no, I hadn’t. He laughed and, with a warm smile and characteristic Sicilian hand gestures for emphasis, implored me to come to the harvest party, saying, “T. J., my friend, you are still an olive oil virgin! You have never tasted olive oil until you have tasted fresh-pressed! It will spoil you for all other oils! Please join me and my family tonight!”

Naturally I accepted Matteo’s enthusiastic invitation.

At that night’s harvest party, I was bowled over

Have you ever lived a night that changed your life forever? This was such a night for me...

With Matteo, his family, and several of their friends, we drove to the community olive mill, just outside the picturesque seaside town of Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily. This community mill is where the town’s olive growers bring their newly harvested olives for pressing and bottling.

We watched as the presses squeezed the olives and then poured forth a pure, fresh, liquid gold. I was handed a small glass and, as instructed by my hosts, sipped some of the new oil, rolled it over and around my tongue, at first sucking and slurping to mix it with air, and then gently exhaling, to saturate my palate with every nuance of the oil’s taste and aroma.

Oh...my...goodness! Was Matteo ever right! I had always been an olive oil aficionado but had never tasted anything like this in America, nothing even close. The oil, just born from earth and tree, was alive with flavors so fresh and green, they awakened my palate as if from slumber.

To understand what I experienced, just imagine that, for your whole life, the only herbs you ever tasted were dried herbs from packages in the supermarket. But then one unforgettable day you finally got to taste delicious fresh-cut herbs just clipped from a neighbor’s garden, and you discovered the real thing! That’s what tasting this fresh-pressed oil was like for me (and will be like for you!).

My mind raced to identify its vivid bouquet of flavors—grassiness, freshly crushed ripe tomatoes, watercress, arugula, green apples, even the nuttiness of walnuts—all in perfect harmony and with a clean, palate-pleasing, slightly astringent mouth feel that was neither too heavy nor too light.

And then there was the pièce de résistance, the oil’s remarkable finish. On swallowing, I noticed a slight peppery pinch at the back of my throat, the hallmark of the very freshest oil. Knowledgeable oil lovers the world over crave that gentle pinch because it denotes the presence of spectacular flavor and nutritional riches coming from super-healthy antioxidants, all at their maximum when the oil is just pressed.

Where had such fresh-pressed olive oil been all my life?

A fleeting notion made me sad, as I thought of all my foodie friends back in the States who had never tasted such oil—and would likely never experience it—because it’s not available in America. (I’ll explain why in a moment.)

But no time for melancholy—my magical night was just beginning!

As the local growers tasted their oils, they were jubilant, smiling broadly and toasting each other with small glasses of olive oil. They were thrilled with the oil that their latest olive crop had produced. They knew they had a winner that would be prized by olive oil aficionados.

With several bottles of fresh-pressed oil in hand, our group then drove back to Matteo’s charming rustic villa for a celebration. Matteo and his wife cheerfully served us pitchers of their delicious homemade red wine. As we sat at wooden tables and benches outside his huge barn, Matteo lit fires of dried olive tree branches. As the smoky fires dimmed, he tossed homemade Sicilian sausages on the open-air grills, which sizzled and scented the cool autumn evening with aromas so intoxicating that I thought I might swoon.

Just when I could stand such foodie anticipation no longer, Matteo’s wife emerged from her kitchen proudly carrying the appetizer, a huge platter of fresh ricotta cheese so warm and delicate that the cheese actually quivered when spooned onto my plate. It spread as softly as a creamy white jam on the warm, crusty homemade Sicilian bread she served along with it.

She spoke little English, and I spoke no Italian, but between her friendly smiles and gracious gestures, she invited me to drizzle our just-squeezed olive oil, and a tiny pinch of Sicilian sea salt, on my hearty helpings of ricotta cheese. I was in foodie heaven, savoring every delicious nibble of my cheese ... and the mouthwatering sausage. And every morsel was elevated to new heights of flavor by the dazzling “debutante” whose coming out we were celebrating— the just-pressed supreme extra virgin olive oil that was fresher and more flavorful than any oil I’d ever tasted.

Why you can’t find such fresh-pressed oil here in America

Upon my return to the States, the memory of this fresh-pressed oil and that night haunted me. I was smitten as if by a new romance. As a food journalist and cook who loves to entertain, I had many meals to prepare in the weeks ahead, and most of them required olive oil. But now, other gourmet olive oils, no matter how expensive or alluring, left me cold. They were utterly tasteless and stale by comparison. I just had to secure more fresh-pressed oil in the U.S., but couldn’t find any, not anywhere!

You and I insist on fresh milk, fresh eggs, fresh fish, fresh meat, and fresh produce. Don’t we deserve fresh olive oil???

Of course we do! But the olive oil industry’s distribution system is designed to ship the oil as inexpensively as possible, via slow-boat cargo ships and through a maze-like distribution chain, making it impossible for you to get your hands on delicious fresh-pressed olive oil like the novello I fell madly in love with in Sicily.

Ever since that life-changing experience, I was determined to find a way to bring fresh-pressed olive oil to America all year round—to race it “from olive grove to your table” while still in its full bloom of freshness and nutritional value. I knew that when foodies in America tasted what I had in Sicily, they’d never be content with ordinary, stale, year-old olive oil again.

But I soon faced a problem. Olives in Sicily—and everywhere else they are grown—are harvested only once a year. So how could I possibly secure fresh-pressed all year long?

Actually, this proved no problem at all. I learned that different olive-growing countries have different climates and, therefore, different harvest seasons throughout the year.

Italy and Greece, for example, harvest their olives in the autumn. In sunny Spain, they harvest their olives into January and February. In spring and summer, when no one in the Northern Hemisphere is harvesting olives, there are spectacular fresh-pressed oils being squeezed at harvests in the “undiscovered” olive-growing countries of the Southern Hemisphere, such as Australia, Chile, and New Zealand.

Long story short, that’s how I founded the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club. I realized that if I were willing to break with the tradition of shipping olive oil by slow cargo ship and instead rush it to America by jet, direct from the new harvest of each olive-growing country, I could be the first to bring authentic fresh-pressed oil to foodies here in America all year round!

It took many months of making arrangements with the world’s most outstanding artisanal producers in the top olive-growing regions around the world, but I at last found a way to secure authentic fresh-pressed olive oil all year long.

A unique new Club, exclusively for passionate olive oil lovers

And that’s how it came to pass that for my Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club members, I serve as a personal “olive oil sommelier,” traveling the world, following the sun, seeking out only the best-tasting oils and acquiring them for my Club members right during the olive harvest, as the olive presses are running, when the oils are miraculously flavorful —like no other olive oil you can find in the U.S.

Sure, since we ship by jet, our Club pays higher shipping rates than the mass marketers of ordinary olive oil would ever tolerate. But that’s the whole secret of why our olive oils are so much fresher—and incomparably better tasting and healthier—than any other olive oils you can obtain in America. And it’s why our renewal rate—those members who stay in the Club quarter after quarter—is a remarkable 87%.

You simply cannot imagine how flavorful this extra virgin olive oil is until that first sensuous drop caresses your tongue and instantly ignites a tasting epiphany, a new revelation of how outrageously bright, green, and flavorful an olive oil can be—just as I experienced in Sicily.

I want you to be smitten just as I was. No words I can summon can do justice to how deliciously such harvest-fresh oil will enliven the flavors of your fresh veggies...your leafy salads...your luscious linguine, spaghetti, penne and fettucini...your sauces...your hearty bean dishes...your scampi and eggplant...your pan-friend mushrooms...your steaks and pork ribs...your delicate sea bass and sole. And just wait and see how much you’ll savor it as a dipping oil with a hunk of crusty bread and tangy cheese that satisfies you to the core.

That’s why I invite you to taste for yourself.

Discover a whole new world of eating pleasure—for just $1

I shamelessly admit that I want to make it as irresistible as I possibly can for you to try my fresh-pressed olive oil. Based on the experience of my other customers, I know that once you try it, you'll never want to live without it. Think for one moment of all the things for which you'll spend $1 or more in the coming months, many of which will have little or no impact on the joy and pleasure you experience in your daily life.

Contrast these with the modest $1 I ask to help cover my shipping. This one little dollar will be your first-class ticket to a whole new world of dining pleasure and satisfaction. For just $1, you'll get to crown about a month's worth of your favorite dishes with the incomparable flavor of divine, fresh-from-the-harvest olive oil.

That's dozens of deliciously enhanced meals for just $1! And no matter what you decide, the $39 bottle is yours to keep with my compliments.

Best of all, as a member of the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, there's no obligation or commitment to buy anything, now or ever.

By the way, our passionate Club members are raving about this fresh-pressed olive oil! It’s so flavorful that it’s become our “secret ingredient” for enhancing the flavors of any recipe calling for olive oil.

I’ve secured a limited number of extra bottles of this dream oil. With its jewel-like green color and bouquet of verdant aromas as complex as a fine wine, it will serve as the perfect complement to any dish you serve in the coming weeks. It's also an ideal introduction to our unique Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club.

How our one-of-a-kind Club works

Four times a year—roughly in November, February, May and August—I travel the world, stalking the global olive groves to sample hundreds of fresh-pressed olive oils right at the peak of their harvest-fresh flavor.

My trusted sources in these faraway olive groves—established over my years of globetrotting— include hundreds of the finest boutique producers and traditional family-owned estates whose oils are proud local treasures. These oils are normally produced in small, exclusive batches and reserved for high-end restaurants and a gourmet clientele in their own locales. Many are the top award winners in regional olive oil competitions. They are virtually never shipped to the U.S.

When I arrive at these harvests, the most respected artisanal producers roll out the welcome mat for me. They know I represent Club members who are the most discriminating olive oil aficionados in America and who fully appreciate fresh and exquisitely flavorful oils. Indeed, our Club’s membership consists of many chefs, high-end restaurants and hotels, as well as a wide array of gourmets, foodies, and health-conscious individuals from every walk of life who insist on enjoying—and serving their lucky guests—the most flavorful and healthiest olive oils on earth.

Our Club’s demanding reputation precedes me, and I usually find myself being treated like a visiting raja. The region’s top artisanal producers vie with one another to bring me dozens of their finest fresh-pressed oils to make me smile with pleasure. From these, I choose the three brightest, most flavorful oils. Then I race my newfound treasures at the peak of their harvest-flavor and nutritional goodness to the U.S. by jet plane, and then right to your front door by rush delivery. The result is that, as a Club member, you get to enjoy what only a tiny handful of Americans ever get to experience—true fresh-pressed olive oil and all its amazing taste and health benefits, rushed to you straight from the latest harvest.

When you join the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, you can expect three bottles of the world’s freshest supreme extra virgin olive oil to show up at your home four times a year. And every oil we ship is certified by independent lab analysis to be 100% pure extra virgin. The three bottles delivered each quarter are meant to supply you with fresh-pressed oil for that quarter—one bottle per month.

You will never have to expend a drop of energy or spend a second of your precious time tracking down great olive oil. You will never again waste your hard-earned money on inferior oil that’s already gone stale in its fancy bottle. You will be one of the few people on earth with a year-round supply of just-pressed, insanely fresh, super-healthy olive oil!

Discover a World of Olive Oil Pleasures You’ve Never Dreamed Of!

As with wine, the possible variations of taste and texture in olive oil are infinite, depending on the olive variety, or “cultivar,” as well as its “terroir,” the combination of soil, climate, and other natural elements that influence its flavor.

As a member of the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, you will experience the finest of every variety. Each new bottle arriving at your home will be a palate-thrilling adventure in olive oil appreciation, accompanied by the Club’s “Pressing Report,” describing each oil’s biography and producer, olive variety, harvest and delivery details, as well as suggestions for ways to enjoy each of the oils, emphasizing seasonal recipes and traditional uses.

You’ll also receive my personal tasting notes for each oil, so you can compare your own impressions with mine. I’ll even include a game plan for an olive-oil tasting party, so you can invite your family members and foodie friends to share their impressions as well. You’re going to have fun discovering and appreciating these remarkable oils!

To our surprise and delight, the Club has prospered even in recent difficult economic times. I think I know why. With so many people eating more at home, our fresh-pressed oils help members turn every home-cooked meal into a joyous celebration of extra flavor and goodness.

These remarkably flavorful fresh-pressed oils bring a new dimension of convenience to preparing a truly delicious meal. Just think about it—you can start with a quick, simple dish, such as a basic roast chicken or plate of plain pasta, and instantly elevate it to a whole new level of flavor and dining pleasure merely by crowning it with this divine oil! You can add so much pleasure and satisfaction to any meal without having to spend hours in the kitchen slaving over a sauce or other ingredients. Mother Nature has already made this heavenly “sauce” for you. You just open and pour!

To receive your $39-bottle-for-a-buck, please RSVP today!

Because we have a limited number of bottles to give away with this $39-bottle-for-a-buck promotion, if you’d like to receive one, we ask you to respond promptly to this special offer. When these bottles are gone, we won’t have a single bottle more to give away!

So, if you’d like to try the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club and receive your $39-bottle-for-a-buck, please RSVP today.

Assuming you are quick to respond, you will immediately receive your $39-bottle-for-a-buck. If you don't agree that it's the most outrageously delicious, insanely bright olive oil you've ever tasted, just let us know and that will end the matter. That first bottle will be yours to keep, as a "thank you" for giving our unique Club a try.

If on the other hand you'd like to remain a member, do nothing. You will automatically be enrolled as a member. Then, in a few weeks, you’ll receive your first regularly scheduled quarterly shipment. The exact shipping date will inevitably depend on whatever Mother Nature chooses as her ideal harvest dates, which remains her prerogative!

If you provide your email address (which we’ll never share with anyone, of course), we will always alert you in advance with the date and tracking number of your shipment.

There is no minimum number of quarters for which you must enroll, and you may cancel your membership at any time. You may also put your shipments on hold—skipping any quarter you choose—any time it’s convenient, for instance if you are traveling or if you are still enjoying the oils from your prior shipment.

Moreover, every quarterly shipment is protected by our 100% money-back guarantee. Just let us know if you’re dissatisfied with your selections for any reason, and you’ll receive 100% of your money back for that shipment, no questions asked.

I urge you not to miss this opportunity to secure your own private, continuous source of rare, fresh-pressed olive oil, few drops of which ever reach our shores!

To keep things simple, the Club offers just two options:

Option #1, Best Value: The Larger Set.

A set of three 500ml (16.9 ounce) bottles of supreme extra virgin fresh-pressed olive oil for only $139 per quarter (includes all shipping and handling). This works out to one 500ml (16.9 ounce) fresh-pressed bottle per month.

Option #2, Excellent Value: The Basic Set.

A set of three 250ml (8.45 ounce) bottles of supreme extra virgin fresh-pressed olive oil for only $99 per quarter (includes all shipping and handling). This works out to one 250ml (8.45 ounce) fresh-pressed bottle per month.

The oils in both sets are identical; just the sizes are different.

The offer we’re presenting here is available nowhere else—not in stores, catalogs, anywhere. Indeed, I don’t know of any other service in the world that delivers precious fresh-pressed olive oils right to your door quarterly. Our exclusive Club is unique, and we’d love to have you as a member.

You will be amazed by their flavor and so will your guests!

I urge you to be among the tiny handful of Americans privileged to enjoy these great fresh oils without needing your own private jet and pilot to whisk you around the globe every quarter. It means you’ll need never again risk purchasing mediocre, flat, or stale olive oil! You can now let the dishes you serve be dramatically enhanced by these oils’ lively, vibrant flavors, quality, and health benefits. And, if you can ever part with one of your cherished bottles, think what a special and personal gift it would make for a foodie friend who would have no other way to experience such taste. Indeed, when you bring one of these bottles to a dinner party, it becomes the talk of the party!

Similarly, this is one of those little luxuries, at a most reasonable price, that will add delight, satisfaction, and comfort to every meal you serve and partake. We all deserve such simple pleasure these days.

What inspires me to say that? Perhaps you have traveled to Italy or other lands, where the local culture encourages people to celebrate the joy of being alive, of taking time from the daily grind and everyday cares to appreciate friends and family, to celebrate fine food and drink at mealtime.

Perhaps you’ve noticed, as I have, how this attitude adds a little sparkle and romance to daily life that we in America usually forego, with our noses so close to the grindstone.

Well, for me, one way I intend to bring more simple satisfaction to daily living is to indulge myself with these gloriously flavorful, ever-so-healthy, fresh-pressed olive oils whenever I wish. This Club brings you so much dining satisfaction at such reasonable cost.

Indeed, these fresh-pressed, super-healthy oils can add vibrant flavor and nutritional goodness to more than 100 meals over the next three months—for less than the price of a single dinner at a nice restaurant! So this heavenly dining pleasure can be yours to experience every day for three whole months for the price of a single restaurant dinner. Surely you deserve that!

If you appreciate the value that such a delightful and healthy daily pleasure can bring, please join me in this exciting adventure, our follow-the-sun quest for the freshest, healthiest, and most flavorful olive oils in the world. Come and vicariously travel the globe with me to capture this precious liquid gold. We’ll enjoy such great taste and fun together!

P.S. Please provide your actual street address on the Order Form, and not a PO box, as FedEx and UPS cannot deliver to a PO box address. The overnight shipping companies we use also need your phone number, in case they have a question about delivery. Thank you!

Click Here to Enroll in Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club and Receive Your $39-Bottle-for-a-Buck