Kampia: Olive Oil from Cyprus

You love good food. You enjoy cooking with olive oil. In fact, you go through a couple of bottles a year and even experiment with different brands from various countries.

If the above paragraph describes you, then my friend, you should RUN -- not walk -- toward the nearest chance to try Kampia Olive Oil.

A little background is in order on how I came to find Kampia. While Googling the world and looking for hard-to-find olive oils to write about, I stumbled across Kampia's website (here). I mentioned them in a blog post, mainly because I was a fan of the fun videos of their harvest. And out of the blue, one of the owners contacted me and offered a taste of his oil. By the way, here's the video again:



This oil is from the village of Kampia in Cyprus, the divided island nation in the eastern Mediterranean (See this map I've built of olive oil makers, including Kampia). The owners now live in London, but return to their ancestral village each year to harvest olives and make their oil. It is sold locally in London, according to its Website.

But this oil hits way above its weight class (to use a boxing metaphor). It is a single estate oil with a tremendous bouquet, a combination of floral and fruity notes that will waft across your dining room table as you pour it onto salad or use as a finishing oil for pastas.

Over the course of the last two or three weeks, I've drizzled the oil on toasted breads, freshly sliced tomatoes, in salads, and -- tonight -- as a finishing for primavera-style pasta, with zucchinis, spinach and mushrooms.

Though Cyprus is technically not a part of Greece, this olive oil has a lot of the characteristics of a Greek oil. It reminded me a lot of my family's oils from the Kalamata region of southern Greece, with a strong aroma, a full-bodied palate experience, and a robust, savory pepper kick in the back of the throat. In a focused tasting I did with the oil the other day, I noted that it had a "good burn", with a "medium to high peppery" finish.

The pepper induced a cough in my wife, who was tasting with me. We both agreed that it makes an excellent finishing oil, because of its fresh, fruity mouth-feel. I also drizzled it on babaghanouj and hummus, with the same effect.

Oftentimes, the aroma of an olive oil may not correspond to its taste -- in other words, the smell takes you in one direction, while the taste jerks you back in another direction. For instance, some olive oils may smell strong and grassy, but ended up sliding down the throat with a smooth and buttery finish. The folks at Kampia have produced an olive oil that plays harmoniously in the nose and on the taste buds.

So, if you can get your hands on Kampia, go for it. Thanks to the Internet, you can order various sizes by sending an email to them through their Website. The only downside -- at least for us in the United States -- is that the shipping costs will add some money to your per-bottle cost. For 500 mL, the cost is 10 British pounds, or a little more than $20 (US dollars), WITHOUT shipping. But to try a rare olive oil from Cyprus, you might find it is worth the cost. -- Costas

P.S. If any readers have tried Kampia, please let us know what you thought of it by posting a comment here. Thank you!