It's not something you expect. Even when you've been through it once before.
When we found out we had won a Gold Award at the 2026 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the first feeling wasn't celebration. It was relief. And gratitude.
Because a lot changes from one harvest to the next. The weather, the conditions, the small decisions made under pressure throughout the season. Nobody guarantees anything in olive oil production. You do your best, pay attention to every detail, and then you wait.
To have it confirmed again, that means something.
What the NYIOOC Is
The New York International Olive Oil Competition is the world's largest and most closely followed olive oil competition. Each year, thousands of producers from more than 30 countries enter their oils. Evaluation is conducted blind, no labels, no names, no stories, by a panel of expert tasters assessing sensory quality and technical precision. Only a fraction of entries receive a Gold Award.
The results are published in the Official Guide to the World's Best Olive Oils and serve as a primary reference for importers, distributors, and food professionals worldwide. A Gold Award doesn't just signal quality in a given year. It puts a producer on a short list that buyers and industry professionals actually use.
The 2025 Harvest
Every harvest has its own character. Yapapi is made from early-harvested Koroneiki olives grown in the Messinia region of the Peloponnese, one of Greece's most storied olive-growing areas. Harvesting happens in early October, when the olives are still green. This timing is a deliberate choice: it produces oil with higher polyphenol levels, a more complex aromatic profile, and the characteristic bitterness and pungency that define high-quality early-harvest extra virgin olive oil.
That choice requires precision. The window is narrow. Processing has to happen fast. There's no margin for carelessness.
The 2025 harvest presented its own challenges, as every season does. The Gold Award is confirmation that the decisions made throughout that season held up under independent scrutiny.
What Two Awards in a Row Actually Mean
A single award can be a good year. Two in a row is harder to dismiss.
The 2024 and 2025 harvests were different seasons with different conditions. Winning Gold at the NYIOOC in both years doesn't mean we've figured everything out, it means the approach is consistent, and that consistency is showing up in the oil.
We don't think of this as an arrival. We think of it as a reminder of what's worth protecting: the early harvest timing, the single-origin sourcing, the short time between grove and mill. None of that changes.
You can find Yapapi's profile in the Official Guide to the World's Best Olive Oils here.