Frequently asked questions

From Birmingham, Alabama.

Everything is bottled and sealed at origin in Greece first: the honey, oregano and tea in Skotina, on Mount Olympus; the pomegranate juice in Elassona, also on Mount Olympus; the olive oil in Avgeniki,  Crete. Then it is imported to the U.S.

With UPS, USPS or FedEx. Standard ground, unless you choose one of the expedited options at checkout.

Free U.S. shipping from $45. Below that, a flat $7.99. One bottle of EVOO gets you there.

To Canada, shipping is calculated at checkout.

Exclusions apply — see our shipping policy.

Yes. 10% off your first order when you join the harvest letter. The code arrives by email.

It doesn't apply to EVOO, which already ships free, or to bundles and subscriptions, which are already discounted.

For now, to the U.S. and Canada only.

Allow 2–3 business days for your order to be processed and shipped, excluding weekends and holidays. Your confirmation email has the details.

When your order ships, we email you the tracking number.

Give it one more business day — carriers sometimes mark a package delivered before it arrives. If it still hasn't come, write to info@ambrosia-nektar.com and we'll take it from there.

Take photos before you throw anything away: the box, the shipping label and what's inside. Keep the box for a few days; the carrier may ask to see it.

Then, within 7 days of delivery, send the photos with your order number to info@ambrosia-nektar.com, and we'll take it up with the carrier. No photos, no claim.

Write to info@ambrosia-nektar.com right away. If the order hasn't shipped yet, we correct it.

If a package comes back to us because of an incorrect or incomplete address, we resend it to the correct one, and the extra shipping is charged to you. If it is lost because of an incorrect address, we cannot replace or refund it. Please check the street, apartment number and ZIP code at checkout.

That said, we want you happy with your order. If something went wrong, write to us. We always have an open ear, and we will figure something out together.

For health and safety reasons, all food items are final sale and cannot be returned. If something is wrong with your order, write to info@ambrosia-nektar.com.

Choose subscribe & save on the EVOO Centenarian or EVOO page. Three EVOO Centenarian or two EVOO arrive every four, six or eight weeks, at 10% off, and ship free.

At one tablespoon a day, three EVOO Centenarian last about six weeks and two EVOO about eight.

Yes, any time, from your account: skip a delivery, move the date, change how often, or cancel. If anything doesn't work, write to info@ambrosia-nektar.com.

The newest one we have. When a new harvest is bottled, your next delivery comes from it, with the new lab analysis published here.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil — the highest grade of olive oil. What it takes to earn the name is the next question.

In the EU, an olive oil may only be labelled extra virgin if it is:

• obtained by mechanical means only — no heat, no chemicals
• at or below 0.80% free acidity
• put through a full chemical analysis in the laboratory
• passed by an official panel of trained tasters: free of defects, with fruitiness, bitterness and pungency
• labelled under strict rules on origin, traceability and best-before dating

Only oils that pass both the laboratory and the tasting panel may carry the name.

Outside the EU, including the U.S., chemical limits often exist, but the tasting panel is usually not mandatory, routine verification is limited, and labelling rules for origin, harvest date and traceability are thin. Same two words. Different test.

Look for an opaque glass or stainless steel container. Light is the enemy of olive oil, and plastic is a no — microplastics.

Look for a harvest date. You want the most recent harvest, which runs from October to January.

Look for the source of the olives, the certifications, the bottling facility and the name of the producer. If a bottle can't tell you these, ask yourself why.

Read the full guide

• Origin: the Messara plain, Crete
• The grove: 490 ft elevation, about 1,600 trees, most of them over 100 years old
• Climate: dry Mediterranean (BGI aridity index 112)
• Producer: the Sklavakis family — Iosif “Sifis” Sklavakis, fourth generation
• Variety: 100% Koroneiki
• Bottled: Avgeniki, Heraklion — bottling facility EL40090
• Batch, January 2026: 2,355 bottles of EVOO · 2,234 bottles of EVOO Centenarian
• Ingredients: 100% organic extra virgin olive oil. Nothing else.

Seven things, and you can check every one of them:

• EU Organic, certificate GR-BIO-03 through BIOHELLAS, and USDA Organic
• PDO Messara — grown, harvested and pressed on the Messara plain
• One variety: 100% Koroneiki
• A harvest date on the bottle, not only a best-before
• The producer code and the bottling facility code, printed on the label
• A batch of 2,234 or 2,355 bottles, each one numbered by hand
• The full laboratory analysis, published on this site

Ask the same of any other bottle.

Because it is measured per batch by an independent laboratory, right after pressing, and polyphenols slowly decline as the oil ages. A number printed on the bottle would be true on the day of the test and too high a few months later. It lives in the analysis, published here, with the date of the test on it.

Sifis presses on the plain. The nearest organic-certified bottling facility is eight kilometres away in Avgeniki — registration EL 40090, printed on your label. We could write “bottled at the source” and round it off. Eight kilometres is the truth, so that is what we print.

Its place in the batch. ME/0412 of 2234 means the four-hundred-and-twelfth bottle of a batch of two thousand two hundred and thirty-four. When the batch is gone, it is gone.

Cool, dark, tightly sealed — and never in the fridge.

Unopened, it carries a best-before date of 24 months from bottling, as EU rules require. That is a conservative guide to peak quality, not an expiry date.

Once opened, oxygen, light and heat start to work on it. Use it within one to two months, and no later than four to six. Koroneiki's high polyphenol content slows oxidation down. It buys you time, not permission.

Above 425°F — high enough for roasting, grilling and frying. Most of what you paid for, though, you taste in the raw oil.

Pomegranates. Nothing else — no added sugar, no preservatives, no fillers, never from concentrate.

The fruit is naturally rich in polyphenols, among them punicalagins and anthocyanins: antioxidants studied for their role against oxidative stress.

We source only from small, certified organic producers in remote, unspoiled parts of Greece. The pomegranates are organic, non-GMO and locally grown, picked at peak ripeness, and juiced without the skin and without crushing the kernels. Never from concentrate, never anything added.

And finally, because Zeus loves it.

Each pomegranate is peeled and pressed in a horizontal juicer, which stops just before the kernels are crushed. That softens the tartness and keeps the fruit's balance — a smooth, slightly sweet juice, with nothing added.

No. It is pressed directly from whole, peeled pomegranates.

Unopened, in a cool, dark place. Once opened, refrigerate it and finish it within a few days.

The juice is not microfiltered, so the natural sediment stays in. Shake it well before opening.

Drying concentrates it. The aromatic compounds intensify, and the flavor becomes bolder and more pronounced than fresh.

In a cool, dark place, away from heat and moisture.

Add it toward the end of cooking, or rub it between your fingers first to release the aroma. It belongs with olive oil, tomatoes, grilled vegetables, meat, fish and legumes. It is also very good on pizza.

Most commercial oregano is harvested too early or machine-dried. Ours is harvested at full maturity and slowly air-dried, so its aromatic compounds develop fully. The mountain soil, clean air and strong sun of the Mount Olympus region do the rest.

Steep half a teaspoon in boiling water for 5–7 minutes. Strain, and drink.

Like any dry herb: in a cool, dark place, away from heat and moisture.

Sideritis — Greek mountain tea, or ironwort — is a group of aromatic plants that grow at high altitude in Greece. It has been drunk as a gentle herbal infusion for centuries.

No. Sideritis is a mountain herb, and naturally caffeine-free.

Soft, earthy and slightly floral, with a gentle herbal warmth. Smooth, without bitterness.

Raw, unfiltered honey can crystallize over time. It is a natural process and changes nothing about its quality — often it is a sign the honey was never heated or filtered.

To make it liquid again, stand the closed jar in warm (not boiling) water for 30 minutes to an hour.

Stored properly, honey keeps its quality almost indefinitely. Archaeologists have found honey in Egyptian tombs that was still edible after thousands of years.

Let the tea cool a little first. Very hot water can degrade honey's natural enzymes; below about 105°F (41°C) is the safe range.

At room temperature, out of direct sunlight.

Greece has more than 1,300 endemic plants, rugged terrain, and large regions untouched by industry — which is why Greek honey is known for its density, aroma and flavor.

Beekeeping here goes back to the Minoans: clay hives were excavated at Phaistos, and a tablet from Knossos records an amphora of honey offered to all the gods.

The full history of Greek honey