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From all of us at Goya Spain, we wish you Happy Holidays.
Christmas 2023
2023 has been full of international recognitions for Goya olive oils. Today, we highlight the medals won at the Master International Olive Oil Contest (MIOOC).
Organized by Aldo Mazzini, the 2023 edition of the Master of Olive Oil Contest awarded a total of four prizes to Goya extra virgin olive oils:
- GOYA® Unico, gold medal and absolute first prize in the blend category.
- GOYA® Organics gold medal.
- GOYA® Garlic, gold medal.
- GOYA® Robusto, bronze medal.
- GOYA® Extra Virgin, participation diploma.
About the MIOOC competition
With the aim of promoting the quality, culture and consumption of extra virgin olive oil and recognizing the work of the best producers and processors, the Master of Olive Oil Contest is divided into several categories, according to the type and intensity of fruitiness of the oils, as well as their geographic origin. There are also special categories for flavored oils and for design and packaging. The olive oils are evaluated by an international jury composed of panel leaders, professional tasters and prestigious consultants.
Typical Christmas pastries are an important part of Spanish gastronomy. Each region or province has its own sweet specialties, which are made with ingredients such as almonds, honey, sugar, butter, flour, eggs, fruits and spices. These are some of the most popular:
Turrones:
They are a sweet mass of honey and almonds that can be soft or hard. The most famous are those of Jijona and Alicante. There are also other varieties such as chocolate, yolk, fruit or coconut.
Marzipan:
It is an almond and sugar paste that is molded into different shapes, such as figures, fruits or animals. The best known is the Toledo marzipan. Other sweets derived from marzipan are the Pastel de Gloria or the “Pan de Cadiz”.
Polvorones:
These are pastries made of flour, butter and sugar that melt in the mouth. They are typical of Andalusia, especially Estepa, in the province of Seville. They can be found in different flavors, such as lemon, cinnamon, chocolate or almond.
Mantecados:
They are similar to polvorones, but more compact and with a greater variety of ingredients. They originated in Antequera, but have spread throughout Spain. Some of the most popular are coconut, wine or anise. But the recipe we like best is the olive oil mantecado. In this recipe, the lard is replaced by extra virgin olive oil, providing natural antioxidants to the traditional mantecados. The pieces are presented with a maximum weight of 35 g per unit, except those with olive oil and the so-called “caseros” or “artesanos” (with a greater amount of almonds), which can reach up to 50 gr.
Roscón de Reyes:
It is a sweet dough bun decorated with slices of candied fruit, which is eaten on January 6, the day of the Three Kings. Inside the roscón are hidden a figurine and a bean, which bring luck or bad luck to the one who finds them. Some roscones are also filled with cream, cream, chocolate or truffle.
Peladillas:
These are candied almonds with sugar, which are used as decoration or as an accompaniment to other sweets. They are originally from Valencia, where they have been made since the 18th century. They can be found in different colors and flavors, such as vanilla, lemon or cinnamon.
These are just some examples of the typical Christmas pastries that can be tasted in Spain. There are many more, such as yemas de Santa Teresa, puff pastries, neules (similar to wafers), pestiños, alfajores, buñuelos or huesos de santo.
The year 2023 has been full of international recognition for Goya olives and olive oils. Proof of this are the 15 medals won at the Australian International Olive Awards (AIOA), which in its 2023 edition recognized GOYA® Manzanilla Olives Stuffed with Serrano Ham as the best olive in the Northern Hemisphere and best stuffed olive (category 17), with GOYA® Manzanilla Olives Stuffed with Minced Tuna Paste as a finalist. The list of AIOA 2023 awards is as follows: In table olives, medals are distributed as follows:
The list of AIOA 2023 awards is as follows:
Olive Oils:
GOYA® Unico and Organics, silver medal.
GOYA® Robusto, Extra Virgen and Garlic, bronze medal.
In table olives, medals are distributed as follows:
Gold:
Silver:
GOYA® Whole Queen Olives.
GOYA® Manzanilla Olives Stuffed with Manchego Cheese Paste.
GOYA® Manzanilla Olives Stuffed with Spicy Chorizo Paste.
GOYA® Manzanilla Spanish Olives.
GOYA® Queen Olives Stuffed with Minced Pimientos.
GOYA® Manzanilla Olives Stuffed with Minced Salmon Paste.
GOYA® Manzanilla Olives Stuffed with Minced Pimientos.
The Australian International Olive Awards are among the newest and most comprehensive olive oil and table olive competitions worldwide. Participants in the competition come from Australia, Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Egypt, New Zealand, North America and Spain. Since its inception, more than 90% of the participants have won medals.
Congratulations to all winners.
We celebrate World Olive Tree Day every November 26th. The role of women in the olive sector is the theme of the 2023 celebration.
The International Olive Oil Council is dedicating World Olive Day 2023 to the role of women in the olive industry and in the entire olive production chain, from cultivation to consumption, in collaboration with CIHEAM (International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies).
For this reason, both organisations have shown the reality of women in the olive grove, highlighting their efforts and sacrifices in this hardworking crop, together with other women’s associations in the olive oil sector representing different geographical areas (including the Women in Olive Oil Network in the USA, the Arab and Jordanian Olive Oil Women’s Network, the Women & Olives LATAM network, and the Italian associations Pandolea and Donne dell’Olio9).
Goya Spain celebrates World Olive Day by paying tribute to the women who are part of our company and our suppliers. Every day they do their best to provide consumers in the five continents with the highest quality oils and olives.
Happy World Olive Tree Day
Harvesting olives for oil is a very important task. It affects the quality and production of the olive oil. Different methods of harvesting olives for oil, which can be manual or mechanical, are used to obtain the raw material with which to produce the best quality aoves. Here we will show you the different olive harvesting methods as highlighted by our supplier, Almazaras de la Subbética.
- Extraction: The olives are picked from the tree by hand, one by one. This avoids damaging the olives. This can be done manually or with a rake. This is the technique used to harvest table olives. It does not cause any damage and is used to produce high quality oils.
- Harvesting: The olives are picked from the tree by beating them with a stick to remove them. It is the most damaging to the tree and the fruit, but it is the best known and most widespread method. A long stick is used to beat and bend the branches of the olive tree. Although in the past it was the most common way of harvesting olives, today it is not used as much as in the past because it leads to breaking of the olive branches, which has a negative effect on the next harvest.
- Shaking or vibrating: By shaking the trunk or branch of the olive tree, the olives come off the tree. This reduces damage with respect to the combing system.
- Collecting from the ground: The olives are harvested from the ground, either by hand or with the help of machines. This method is used when the olives have fallen from the tree in a natural way, due to the ripening process or to the wind. This is the easiest and most economical method. However, it also produces the poorest quality oils.
Quality production
By observing the color and texture of the fruit, which changes according to its ripeness, you can tell if the olive is ready to be harvested. Each state has certain characteristics and properties that will influence the flavor and aroma of the oil.
This is the origin of our EVOOs. Our suppliers collect the raw material with the most careful care to produce extra virgin olive oils of the highest quality that Goya bottles and exports to markets in the five continents.
On November 16, the Assembly Hall of the Higher Polytechnic School hosted the closing ceremony of the 2022-2023 academic year, which included the presentation of the awards of the Chair “Engineering in the Agri-Food Industry – Goya Antonio Unanue”.
Antonio Carrasco, General Manager at Goya Spain, was in charge of presenting the two prizes for the best Final Project (TFE) and the best doctoral thesis from among those completed within the Doctorate Program in Installations and Systems for Industry at the University of Seville, worth 1,000 € each.
In the first category, the prize went to the work “Optimization study of sweet potato fermentation in brine” by Leidy Alejandra Zambrano Camargo. The prize for the best doctoral thesis went to the work “Development of soy protein matrices with the incorporation of micronutrients for use in horticulture” by Mercedes Jiménez Rosado (prize collected by Alberto Romero García).
The “Engineering in the Agri-Food Industry Goya – Antonio Unanue” Chair, is an initiative promoted by the University of Seville and Goya Spain to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research activities linked to the agri-food industry that allow the study of the reality, problems, and prospects for the development of new strategies and technologies in the field.
Directed by Amalia Luque, Professor of Engineering Projects at the University of Seville and based at the Polytechnic School, the “Goya Antonio Unanue” Chair is one of the three University-Company Chairs based at the Polytechnic School, University of Seville.
The Goya Antonio Unanue Chair has envisaged a wide range of activities to promote the transfer of knowledge. The “Engineering Projects in Action Classroom Permanent Seminar” programmed a series of conferences given by specialists from the industrial, research and business sectors related to the Chair’s scope. The last one was given by José María Manzano Crespo, deputy director of the Higher Technical School and head of the ODS Research Group at Loyola University, and focused on the possibilities offered by efficient irrigation control for sustainable agriculture.
The Goya Chair continues its academic activity. As part of this, on 16 November the Aula Goya, a permanent training seminar, will host a new session led by José María Manzano Crespo, deputy director of the Higher Technical School (Escuela Politécnica Superior) and head of the ODS Research Group at Loyola University, who will analyse the possibilities offered by efficient irrigation control for sustainable agriculture. The speech by José Maria Manzano will take place in Room 2.3 at the Escuela Politécnica Superior, at 9.00 am. Sign up to attend at catedragoya@us.es.
Specialist publications
In addition to this workshop, the Chair has sponsored the publication of two academic papers in specialist research journals. The first of these, on the predictive maintenance of equipment (from refrigeration units to transport belts) was published in the journal DYNA engineering and industry. The paper reviews the current status of the use of machine learning and deep learning in predictive maintenance in academia, thus responding to questions related to these practices.
The second paper was published on the research portal IEEE explore and is related to wine production. The objective and subjective quality of wines is an important issue in its production and marketing. To improve its quality, some production methods attempt to relate the physico-chemical properties of the wine to the quality as perceived by humans. The Chair’s publication examines and compares various metrics of attribute importance and their application to quality-conscious wine design and production.
The Evooleum Guide, which lists the 100 best extra virgin olive oils in the world, is now available. The 2024 edition, which includes the extra virgin olive oils awarded in the Evooleum 2023 Awards, has recognized the quality of GOYA® Unico and GOYA® Organics olive oils, with a total of 92 points each. Likewise, Goya premium oils are placed in the Top 20 of the best Spanish EVOOs.
Every year, the Evooleum awards recognize the 100 best EVOOs in the world. Its tasting panel evaluates the organoleptic quality of the samples presented, from which the Top 100 of the best extra virgin olive oils in the world emerge each season, as well as the best in their different categories, varieties and countries.
The Evooleum Guide has more than twenty articles on the art of tasting, international olive growing, EVOO and gastronomy, the most beautiful gourmet extra virgin olive oil stores in the world, gastrotrends, olive oil tourism, EVOO and health, an olive oil dictionary, etc.
At Goya España we bottle olive oil, table olives and capers under the Goya® brand. With more than 300 international awards for olive oil and more than 100 for table olives that endorse our quality, we are present in more than 20 markets on five continents to which we export an average of 22 million bottles of oil and 20 million jars of olives and capers every year.
Our product range includes extra virgin olive oils (Unico, Organics, Robusto, Clásico and the flavored Garlic and Truffle olive oils); olive oils (Puro and Light Flavor); table olives (plain, stuffed with peppers, salad olives, alcaparrado, reduced sodium and organic); with special stuffings and black olives; vinegars (Balsamic, Jerez Pedro Ximénez and Jerez Reserve Pedro Ximénez); capers and gazpacho.
Discover our products, discover Goya España, flavor 100% origin Spain.