“If you see an oil that is available in both a tin and a bottle…I think it is always a better bet to buy the tin because metal protects oil better than glass…A screw cap covering an internal plastic pouring spout shows that the producer is concerned about keeping the product airtight.” – Deborah Krasner, James Beard Award-winning author of The Flavors of Olive Oil

After 10 years of making olive oil, we decided this was the year to challenge ourselves to be the most responsible oil producers we could be. Our reason for moving to tin is both ecological and economical. Glass has been difficult to get consistently (there was only one factory in the world that makes our specific bottle), and the price keeps going up. Plus, it’s heavy and expensive to ship. As carefully as we pack it, we still get breakage. Perhaps most importantly, even the darkest of glass lets in light, and recent studies have shown that oils are much more negatively affected by light than was thought previously.

But saying good bye to our beautiful bottles? It didn’t seem so hard when we realized that we could have a beautiful tin, too! In addition, we will be able to reduce our shipping costs by 30-40%, and our shipping materials consumption by the same. Better for the oil? Costs less to transport to our customers? Reduces waste and energy consumption? We’re in. We hope you’ll be, too.

THE BENEFITS OF OUR NEW TIN CONTAINERS:

Nutritional value: Studies show that exposure to sunlight can reduce the nutritional value of olive oils. The opaque nature of tin prevents any loss of nutritional value.
Quality: The most important factor in loss of overall taste, health and nutritional quality is oxidation caused by light. Additional studies have shown that tin gives full protection against light “and the quality of the oil remains better than in other packaging systems.”
Recyclability: Tin containers have a higher rate of recyclability than most plastics and glass.
Printing directly: Tin will allow us to print our label directly on the container, vs. having
paper labels printed and transported to the farm. It will also reduce waste, as we generally have to order more than we need to make sure we have enough.
Reduction in packaging resources and energy requirements: Just skipping the heat gun (used in sealing the cork to the bottle) will have an enormous impact on the amount of energy we use to package our olive oil. More efficient packaging (no label application, for example) will reduce the amount of time we need to light our production facility. All of these small changes add up to less energy consumed.
Lighter than glass: Tin is nearly two-thirds lighter than typical glass. In our case, a 500
ml bottle is 5 times heavier than the same sized tin container. Once filled with olive oil,
our 500 ml tin will weigh 40% less than its glass counterpart. From transport to our farm,
to shipping it to our retailers or the front door of a customer across the country, a 40%
reduction in weight = less fuel, less cost, smaller eco-footprint!