Yacine Amor, Founder & Olive Oil Sommelier
Every oil we sell has passed the same two tests: my palate, and an independent laboratory.
Meet Yacine Amor, founder of The Artisan Olive Oil Company
I founded The Artisan Olive Oil Company in London in 2016 with a simple conviction: the extra virgin olive oil sold in most UK shops bears little resemblance to what the world's best producers actually make — and British food lovers deserved access to the real thing.
Before importing a single bottle, I trained as an olive oil taster. I studied with three of the discipline's most respected schools: the Olive Oil School of Spain, IRVEA (the International Academy of Virgin Olive Oil), and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes, whose tasting assessments are among the most demanding in the industry. Tasting professionally means learning to detect not just quality but defects — rancidity, fustiness, mustiness — that most consumers have unknowingly accepted as "the taste of olive oil" their whole lives.
How we select our oils
Palate alone is not enough, which is why every oil we import must pass two independent tests.
The sensory test. I taste every oil before we agree to import it — most of them at the estate where they are made. Since 2016 I have visited producers across Italy, Spain and Tunisia, from the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany to Andalusia and the Tunisian Sahel, meeting the families behind the mills and tasting each harvest as it is pressed.
The laboratory test. We commission a chemical analysis from an independent third-party laboratory for the oils we sell — free acidity, peroxide values and polyphenol content — and we publish the results on our product pages. If a producer's numbers don't match their story, we don't list the oil.
This double filter is why our range is small — around 30 oils, not 300. It is also why we are the exclusive importer of many of the world's most awarded olive oil producers — including Frantoio Franci (100/100 in Flos Olei 2027 and Flos Olei Hall of Fame), Oro Bailén, Nobleza del Sur, Pacioni, Galioto, Acushla, Domaine Fendri and Moulins Mahjoub. When a producer of that calibre grants exclusivity, it is because they trust how their oil will be selected, stored and represented. Our oils are stocked by Harrods and Ocado and served in gourmet restaurants across the country.
Credentials & affiliations
- Trained olive oil taster: Olive Oil School of Spain, IRVEA, Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes
- Founder, The Artisan Olive Oil Company Ltd (London, est. 2016)
- Member, Guild of Fine Food
- Certified organic by the Organic Food Federation (audited annually)
- Exclusive UK importer for every olive oil producer in our range, including Domaine Fendri, Moulins Mahjoub, Frantoio Franci, Oro Bailén and Nobleza del Sur
Questions I'm often asked
How can I tell if an extra virgin olive oil is genuinely good? Start with two things on the label: a harvest date (not just a best-before date) and a named producer and estate. Then look for published chemistry — free acidity well below the 0.8% legal maximum (ours are below 0.25%) and a stated polyphenol level. If a bottle offers none of these, the seller is asking you to take quality on faith.
Do you really taste every oil yourself? Yes — it is the part of the job I would never delegate. Tasting is also ongoing: harvests vary year to year, so I re-taste each producer's new season before we commit to it.
Which oils do you use at home? I usually keep several oils on the go at once — a mild, a medium and an intense — and reach for whichever suits what I'm cooking: something delicate for fish or burrata, something powerful for grilled meat, soups and bruschetta. And I love to change oils regularly; with each producer's harvest varying year to year, there is always something new to taste. It's the same principle our collection filters are built on — matching the oil to the dish, rather than searching for one "best" bottle.
Every product description, buying guide and article on this site is written or reviewed by Yacine Amor.