What Is Olive Oil Made From? The Honest Answer
The question of what olive oil is made from has a simple answer and a more interesting one. The simple answer is olives — olive oil is the juice pressed from the fruit of the olive tree, and a genuine extra virgin oil is nothing more than that. The more interesting answer is that how an olive becomes oil, and what is or isn't done to it along the way, is the whole story of why one bottle is worth having and another is not. This article walks through what olive oil is really made from, how the fruit turns into oil, and why the method matters as much as the ingredient.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- Olive oil is made from whole olives — the fruit of the olive tree — and nothing else. A true extra virgin oil has a single ingredient.
- The oil lives in the flesh of the fruit. It is released by crushing the olives into a paste and then separating the oil from the water and solids.
- It takes roughly four to five kilograms of olives — around 2,000 olives — to make a single litre of extra virgin oil.
- The best oil is cold-pressed: extracted mechanically, without heat or chemicals, which preserves the flavour and the polyphenols.
- Lower grades — refined and pomace oils — are made from the same fruit but with heat, solvents and refining that strip out most of what makes olive oil worth having.
- So "made from olives" is true of every grade. The real question is how the olives were turned into oil — and that is what separates a good bottle from a poor one.
Made From the Fruit, Not the Seed
Most cooking oils are made from seeds or grains — sunflower, rapeseed, soybean, corn. Olive oil is unusual in that it is made from a fruit. The olive is a small stone fruit, like a tiny plum, and the oil is held in the flesh around the stone, stored in the cells of the fruit itself. That is why olive oil can be made by simple mechanical pressing, the same way you might press juice from a grape, without any need for the chemical extraction that seed oils typically require.
This matters more than it might sound. Because the oil is already present as oil inside the ripe fruit, a good olive oil is essentially fresh-pressed fruit juice — it carries the flavour, aroma and natural antioxidants of the olive straight into the bottle. The olives are picked, usually in autumn, when they have turned from green to a deep purple-black, though many premium oils are pressed from greener, earlier-harvested fruit for a more peppery character.
The variety of olive matters too. There are hundreds of cultivars — Picual, Arbequina, Koroneiki, Picholine and many regional varieties — each giving a different flavour, colour and balance. A single-estate oil pressed from one grove carries the character of its particular trees and soil, in a way a blended supermarket oil rarely does.
How Olives Become Oil
Turning olives into oil is a sequence of simple mechanical steps. Understanding them makes it clear why "cold-pressed" and "extra virgin" are more than marketing words.
First the olives are washed to remove leaves, twigs and soil. Then they are crushed — traditionally between stone wheels, now usually by stainless steel hammer mills — into a thick paste of flesh, skin and broken stones. This paste is then slowly churned, a stage called malaxation, which helps the tiny droplets of oil join together into larger ones that can be separated out. The gentler and cooler this stage, the better the oil.
Finally the oil is separated from the water and solids. Modern mills use a centrifuge — spinning the paste at high speed so the oil, being lighter, separates from the heavier vegetable water and pomace. Traditional mills pressed the paste between mats. Either way, what runs out is olive oil, and if no heat or chemicals were used, it is extra virgin.
How Much Fruit Makes a Bottle?
One figure brings home just how concentrated olive oil is: it takes roughly four to five kilograms of olives — around 2,000 individual olives — to produce a single litre of extra virgin oil. Early-harvest green olives, which yield less oil but a more intense character, can need even more.
That ratio is part of why genuine extra virgin olive oil is not cheap, and why a suspiciously low price is worth questioning. A litre of oil represents a great deal of fruit, a careful harvest, and prompt pressing — olives begin to deteriorate within hours of picking, so the best oils are pressed the same day. The number also explains why olive oil has always been treated as something precious across the Mediterranean, valued not only as food but in tradition and ceremony, and honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah.
Where the Grades Come From
Here is the part that the simple answer hides. Every grade of olive oil is "made from olives" — but they are made very differently, and the differences are everything.
Extra virgin is the juice of the olive, cold-pressed mechanically with no heat above the natural temperature of the process and no chemicals. It keeps the fruit's flavour, aroma, colour and polyphenols. Virgin oil is made the same way but from fruit of slightly lower quality. Refined olive oil is made from lower-grade oil that has been treated with heat and processing to neutralise defects, stripping out the flavour and most of the antioxidants in the process. Pomace oil, the lowest grade, is extracted from the leftover paste using chemical solvents and then refined.
So when a label simply says "olive oil" or "pure olive oil", it usually means a refined oil blended with a little virgin oil for taste — a long way from the fresh-pressed juice people picture. For a fuller walkthrough of the grades and how to judge quality, see our guide to choosing a quality olive oil.
Why Sidr & Stone
Once you know that every olive oil is "made from olives" but only some are made well, the choice comes down to the method and the care behind it. Sidr & Stone is built around making the oil the honest way — the way that keeps the fruit's character intact from grove to bottle.
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove on the plains outside Marrakech, Morocco; no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives them.
- Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, or herbicides.
- Single harvest — a small, limited batch, harvested only when the season says the fruit is ready, sometimes weeks later than neighbouring farms.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — mechanical extraction with no added heat, so the flavour, aroma and polyphenols of the fresh fruit reach the bottle intact.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, and it may show natural sediment, which is normal for a genuine unfiltered oil.
- 100% natural — a single ingredient, olive oil, with nothing added.
- Dark glass with a gold label — protective packaging against the light that degrades polyphenols.
- Halal certified, with 10% of profits going to charity as a brand-wide commitment.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the best olive oil — that is the kind of bare claim worth being wary of. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown, and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, so what reaches the bottle is as close to the fresh-pressed fruit as olive oil gets.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is olive oil made from?
Olive oil is made from whole olives, the fruit of the olive tree. A genuine extra virgin olive oil has a single ingredient — the oil pressed mechanically from the fruit, with nothing added.
Is olive oil made from the fruit or the seed?
From the fruit. The oil is stored in the flesh of the olive around the stone, which is why it can be extracted by simple mechanical pressing rather than the chemical extraction most seed oils need.
How many olives does it take to make a litre of olive oil?
Roughly four to five kilograms of olives — around 2,000 olives — for a single litre of extra virgin oil. Early-harvest green olives yield less and can need more.
How are olives turned into oil?
The olives are washed, crushed into a paste, slowly churned to help the oil droplets merge, and then the oil is separated from the water and solids by centrifuge or pressing. If no heat or chemicals are used, the result is extra virgin oil.
What does cold-pressed mean?
Cold-pressed means the oil is extracted by mechanical means without added heat, keeping the temperature low throughout. This preserves the flavour, aroma and polyphenols that heat and refining would otherwise damage.
Is all olive oil made the same way?
No. Extra virgin is cold-pressed juice; refined and pomace oils are made from the same fruit but with heat, solvents and refining that strip out most of the flavour and antioxidants. "Made from olives" is true of all of them, but the method is what differs.
What is olive pomace oil made from?
From the leftover olive paste after the first pressing. The small amount of remaining oil is extracted using chemical solvents and then refined, making it the lowest grade in the category.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
What is olive oil made from? Olives — and at its best, only olives. But the honest answer goes one step further: the value of an olive oil is decided less by the fruit it starts with than by what is done to that fruit on the way to the bottle. Crushed gently, pressed cold, and bottled without refining, the olive gives up an oil that still tastes and behaves like fresh fruit. Heated, solvent-extracted and refined, the same fruit gives a pale, neutral oil with most of its character removed.
So the next time you read "made from olives" on a label, treat it as the beginning of the question rather than the end of it. Ask how it was made — cold-pressed or refined, single-estate or blended, fresh or aged — because that is where the real difference lives.
Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed, and unfiltered — is made the honest way, available now on pre-order from our first harvest, with fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited First Harvest →
Disclaimer: This article explains how olive oil is made at the time of writing; production practices may vary by producer, and readers should check current sources. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional.
