Three friends, a checked suitcase from Sicily, and a kitchen table covered in tasting notes that wouldn't stop growing.
In early 2021, Anika came back from a trip to Sicily with a single, faintly absurd jar of Castelvetrano olives in her hand luggage. She brought them to a long lunch in Sikatuna Village. Miguel said: why can't we get this here? Karen, the cook of the three, said: and also the oil, and the salt, and the oregano.
That dinner became a list. The list became a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet became a small warehouse on Maginhawa Street, and somewhere along the way the three of us turned into actual importers, opening cartons, tasting everything, writing back — politely, sometimes less so — about what we liked and didn't.
Healthy Olives is the boring, professional version of that lunch. We import in small batches, never private-label, and we don't list anything we haven't tasted — from a producer we haven't met, made by someone we don't know by name. Twelve countries, forty-two producers, one opinionated shelf.
If we can't put a name and a face to where it came from, it doesn't go on the shelf. Ever.
Real labels, real makers. We refuse to slap our logo on someone else's work.
Every product is tasted on arrival and again before it ships. Karen has strong opinions; we listen.
If a jar arrives short, off, or unhappy, send a message. Refund or replacement, no photos, no forms.
Used to be a food editor. Has personally visited every producer we work with at least once. Has opinions about olive oil bitterness; you will hear them.
Logistics nerd. Built our import routing from a whiteboard. Believes the optimal number of warehouse SKUs is "fewer than you think."
Trained at Enderun. Tastes every product in our Maginhawa kitchen before it goes live. Has strong opinions on salt. (Specifically: tultul.)
“We don't really run a marketplace.We run a long list of people we trust.”
Castelvetrano olives and Nocellara oil. Fourth-generation dry-farmed grove.
Single-estate Picual EVOO, cold-pressed within four hours of picking.
Black garlic aged 90 days at low humidity. Third-generation maker.
Wild-gathered oregano and single-origin thyme honey from a mountain co-op of fourteen families.
1,500m hand-pulped, sun-dried arabica. Roasted weekly in their hometown.
Hand-shaped clay-pot salt blocks. Fewer than a dozen producers left in the country.