πέλᾰνος /ˈpe.la.nos/
A mixture made of olive oil, honey and emmer wheat that the ancient Athenians used to offer to the citizens who best represented their ideals.
ἀγήρων /a.'yee.ron/
Ageless. A person who lives long and does not age.
Why: For health & longevity.
What: We harvest, bottle & produce early harvested olive oil & unique, rare varieties of honey in their purest form possible.
How: With our experience & knowledge we use cutting edge technology, always in accordance with nature
Philosophy & goals
Elaion’s main ambition is to retain a 100% natural product, through the whole production procedure, from the tree and honeycomb to the final product.
The company’s sustainable growth relies on its ability to constantly deliver an exceptional quality olive oil and honey, a goal that can only be achieved by rigorously monitoring and supervising each stage of production.
With headquarters at the center of Athens, Elaion serves both the domestic and international market, from Germany and Switzerland to China, Japan and US. Its overall vision is to promote top quality Hellenic products and make their unquestionable nutritional value, health benefits and amazing taste known to the world.
Olive Oil
Olives are a fruit and thus they produce olive juice. It is the production procedure that dictates its quality and thus a well squeezed unripe fruit, bottled and stored properly, will keep the juice fresh for consumption for a long time, well after its due date.
- Olives are collected during the coolest period of the day
- The fruit needs to still be green and unripe when collected, solely by hand without using any mechanical means
- Olives are then placed in small, 20 kg-jute bags for transportation, in a single layer to avoid excess pressure on them
- Within a maximum of eight hours they are transported to the stone mill where, without delays, the production process begins
- Leaves and twigs are separated from olives by blowing air
- Washing with fresh running water
- Crushing [grinding] olives into paste, by mechanical means
- Malaxing [mixing] for about 20 minutes at 24 up to 26οC
- Then, the paste goes into the decanter centrifuge in order to separate the light liquid (olive oil) from the heavy liquid (rest of paste)
- Cleaning the olive oil with running water separated by centrifuge method
- Filtering the juice by mechanical methods
- The olive oil is extracted and it is placed into –conical bottom- stainless steel tanks
- Samples of olive oil are then analyzed by approved IOOC labs according to EC and International standards
- Bottling in dark green glass bottles is the final stage
- During the whole process, the temperature is continuously tested and controlled and never exceeds 26οC
Honey
Melariston Finest Honey is a pure Hellenic honey from carefully selected local producers, available in large quantities and in many different varieties.
Greece is well known for apiculture. The temperature climate of Greece supports rich flora from which honeybees gather nectar. Certain varieties of flora are found only in Greece. Nectar is derived from coniferous trees, flowers as well as aromatic plants. If anyone of the floral variety dominates, then the honey will have that specific flavor. The exceptional taste of Greek honey makes it the preferred honey across the world, as it is one of the top nations making large amounts of this natural product.
Basically there are three varieties of Greek honey:
- Monofloral, mostly derived from plants such as orange blossom, heather, chestnut and thyme
- Polyfloral, dirived from various wild herbs, aromatic plants such as eucalyptus and levander
- Honeydew, derived from the secretion of small insects namely aphids that are found on forest trees
Every Greek honey variety has distinguishable features and benefits, such as:
- it serves as an antiseptic and antibacterial agent and boosts the immune system activity
- it is a strong anti-oxidant
- it is reach in polyphenols that help in free radical elimination
- it has high nutritious value
- it helps to improve blood circulation
- it is an excellent source of energy
- because of its exceptional taste and unique flavor, Greek honey gives excellent taste when used in cooking
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
ELAION has received many awards both domestically and internationally. It received the “Gastronomos” award in 2009 and Eleotechnia’s “Aristion” in 2014. Its olive oil was awarded by the “Feinschmecker” magazine in 2014 as one of the best 50 olive oils in the world, amongst 750 competing samples.
It received the Gold and Silver medal at Olive Japan Competition in 2014. It was also awarded at the International Zurich Competition “Best of Greece” 2014, 2016 and 2019 and received the audience award “Olio” in 2019.
