Zeytin Reserve Awarded Gold at World Competition

Hizirlar Medikal Gida San. ve Tic. Ltd. Şti. from Turkey has won a Gold Award at the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world's most prestigious olive oil quality contest.

The company produces extra virgin olive oil from Memecik olives using traditional harvesting methods.

"NYIOOC is truly special for us," the company's owner, Ahat Caskurlu, told Olive Oil Times. "This year is even more special since we were able to win a Gold after two consecutive Silver Awards."

The producer won a Gold Award for Zeytin Reserve, a medium Memecik monovarietal.

"This serves as a pat on the back, a reaffirmation of a job well done and keeps us going for next years," Caskurlu said about winning the industry's most coveted quality award.

The road to producing an award-winning extra virgin olive oil was marked by significant challenges, the producer told us.

"Climate continues to be the biggest challenge for us, even with the second year of COVID. We had to fend off so many natural events such as droughts, wildfires, and heavy unexpected rainfalls which kept us on our toes and required us to be nimble and be able to make changes quickly in ambiguous situations," Caskurlu explained, adding, "Glad we were able to conquer this year's harvest."

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, held each spring in New York, is the world's largest and most prestigious olive oil contest and its annual listing of award winners is considered the authoritative guide to the year’s best extra virgin olive oils.

The complete list of winners can be viewed in the Official Guide to the World's Best Olive Oils.