WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT COVID and tasting POLICIES?

Please check out our current COVID Policies

HOW MUCH IS SHIPPING?

We offer flat-rate shipping to Canada (currently $10) or the USA ($25.00).  You can order as many items as you want in a shipment and the shipping cost is $10.00

WHERE DO YOU SHIP?

We currently ship to Canada and the USA.  We have shipped to other countries in the past, but this is a special order and you need to contact us to see what we can arrange.

CAN I ORDER ONLINE FOR FREE  IN STORE PICKUP SO I CAN SKIP THE LINE OUTSIDE YOUR STORE?

Yes!  Once you choose your items and add them to the cart, you can choose in store pickup as a shipping option during checkout.  Please note: it takes 2-4 hours for us to prepare your online order, and you will receive a second email telling you your order is ready for pickup. Details here on how to choose in store pickup during checkout.

CAN YOU HELP ME NAVIGATE YOUR WEBSITE TO ORDER ONLINE?

Absolutely!  We have step-by-step instructions.

WHAT IS THE SHELF LIFE OF YOUR OILS AND VINEGARS

We recommend using up your oils within one year of purchase from our store.  Oils of any kind do go rancid, and are optimum when freshest.  They will be more falvourful and healthful when freshest.  Every 6 months we rotate hemispheres to bring you the freshest oils in the world.

Vinegars, on the other hand, should be used up within 3 years of purchase from our store.  Although they don’t go bad, they can discolour, separate or lose flavour.

DO YOU TAKE BOTTLES BACK FOR REFILLING

We are not permitted by our local health department to refill or reuse bottles.  There are many reasons for this:
1) Refilling bottles is not permitted because, unlike beer and wine, our products are a perfect medium for certain pathogens, including botulism
2) Ensuring your bottle is safe and perfectly clean is difficult with our  dark, narrow necked bottles.  They are extremely difficult to clean, especially of oil.  It takes significant water, sanitizing chemical electricity and human labour to clean a bottle, and then even more of the above to sanitize it.
3) Due to the added labour and resources that would be required, if we were allowed to sanitize bottles this service would increase the cost of your olive oil and vinegar.
4) Olive oil and balsamic vinegar can sit in cupboards for months or years and therefore require a more stringently clean bottle than, say, a growler of beer.
5) When your refill a growler, it is first sprayed with a food safe chemical.  This is a required final step for sanitizing. We cannot add oil and vinegar into a wet bottle, and our customers do not want chemical added to their food supply.
6) Our store is located on a ancient aquifer and our water resources are limited and precious.

 

Fortunately, on the Sunshine Coast, if you take your bottles to be recycled, your glass bottles are crushed and used in landscaping.