📜 Aydın Memecik olive oil

Aydın Memecik (Aydın Memecik Zeytinyağı) is an EU protected designation of origin (PDO) for olive oil from the Memecik variety from Aydın Province in western Turkey. The EU registered it by Regulation 2024/445 of 29 January 2024, with no objections. In Turkey the name had been protected since 2020; the applicant was the Aydın Commodity Exchange, founded in 1956.

The area is the whole of Aydın Province: 17 districts (Efeler, Nazilli, Söke, Kuşadası, Didim and others), 8,007 km². The Büyük Menderes (Great Meander) valley opens to the sea; the average temperature is 17.6 °C and rainfall averages 677.5 mm a year. Olives have been grown here for more than 2,000 years, under the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, the Aydınid beylik and the Ottoman Empire.

The oil is made only from Memecik grown in the province; this variety supplies 75% of Aydın's olives. The fruit is harvested by hand or by machine so that it never touches the ground, and fallen fruit is not used. The olives are washed in water at 30–40 °C, and the paste is malaxed for no longer than an hour at 23–35 °C. Unlike many EU designations, there is no 27 °C limit here. Requirements: acidity up to 0.8%, peroxide value up to 18, total phenols at least 100 mg/kg, luteolin at least 45 mg/kg. According to the document, Memecik from Aydın yields more phenols and sterols than the same variety from İzmir and Muğla.

The colour ranges from green to golden yellow, the aroma is intensely fruity, and bitterness and pungency are pronounced, with notes of green almond, green apple and fresh herbs.

Why it matters to you. There are no special packaging rules: the label shows the name, the producer and the EU PDO logo. Pronounced bitterness and pungency are not a defect here but a trait of the variety, linked to its phenols.