Early harvest, in one sentence
Early harvest olive oil is extra virgin olive oil pressed from olives picked at the very start of the season, while the fruit is still mostly green, rather than weeks later when it has ripened to purple and black. In Spain that usually means October, before the main harvest gets going.
It sounds like a small detail. In the glass, it changes almost everything: colour, aroma, flavour and how much oil each tree gives.
Green olives versus ripe olives
An olive changes a lot as it ripens on the branch. Early in the season the fruit is firm and green, and it holds less oil. As autumn goes on it softens, darkens and fills with more oil, while some of its sharper, greener compounds fade.
That is why producers face a real trade-off:
- Pick early and you get less oil per kilo of olives, but a greener, fresher, more intense oil.
- Pick late and you get more oil from the same trees, usually softer, rounder and more buttery in taste.
Neither is “wrong”. Late harvest oils can be lovely and mellow. But because early harvest gives a smaller yield, it takes more olives, more care and better timing to fill each tin, which is a big part of why it costs more.
What does early harvest olive oil taste like?
If you have only ever tasted supermarket olive oil, the first sip of a good early harvest oil can be a surprise. Expect:
- Green, grassy aromas: freshly cut grass, green tomato, herbs, sometimes artichoke or green apple.
- Bitterness on the tongue, clean rather than harsh.
- A peppery kick that catches the back of your throat, sometimes enough to make you cough.
- A vivid colour, often greener than late harvest oil, from the chlorophyll in young fruit.
Bitterness and pepperiness come largely from naturally occurring compounds in the fruit called polyphenols. Greener olives generally carry more of them, which is why early harvest oils tend to taste bolder. Tasters treat that bitterness and pungency as positive attributes in extra virgin olive oil, not faults.
Is early harvest the same as extra virgin?
Not quite. Extra virgin is a legal grade. To carry it in the EU, an oil has to pass laboratory limits (for example free acidity of 0.8% or less) and a tasting panel. Early harvest describes when the olives were picked. An early harvest oil can be extra virgin, and the best ones are, but the two words answer different questions.
“Early harvest” is also not a regulated term in its own right, so it is worth looking for the details that back it up: a stated harvest month or date, the olive variety and the place the olives were grown. Our guide on how to spot fake extra virgin olive oil goes through what to check on a label.
How to use it
Early harvest oil is at its best where you can taste it. Use it raw: over burrata, tomatoes, soups, grilled vegetables, beans, fish or a good piece of bread with salt. A little goes a long way, so it is worth keeping a more everyday oil for frying and roasting in bulk, and saving the early harvest for finishing.
How to store it
Light, heat and air are what age olive oil. Keep it in a dark tin or bottle, close the lid, store it away from the hob and the window, and enjoy it within a few months of opening. Fresh early harvest oil is a seasonal product, so it is meant to be used, not saved for best.
ONLY’s early harvest
We pick our olives in the first week of October, at the very start of the season, while they are still green. They are 100% Picual, a variety known for its green, peppery character, grown in Jaén in southern Spain (read more in our guide to Picual olive oil). The olives are cold pressed below 27°C, and our 2025 harvest was tested by a third-party olive oil laboratory, which measured free acidity of 0.10%, against the EU extra virgin limit of 0.8%. You can see the full lab results on our home page.
It comes in a 500ml pink and gold tin that keeps the light out. The Early Harvest is €35.99, and our Everyday extra virgin is €27.99 for cooking.