Aeithalis' Story
We are William Uden and Ilias Panagiotakopoulos
We are Aeithalis.
Aeithalis is the Greek word for evergreen. A name that drew its inspiration from the evergreen olive tree so beloved in the Mediterranean and beyond.
Our story began in 2017. After the sad passing of Ilias’ father John, William (a Welsh puppeteer, living in London) and Ilias (a creative director, based in Athens) decided to travel to the Panagiotakopoulos family grove which had now been passed down to Ilias.
It did not take long for us both to decide to take up the Panagiotakopoulos family tradition and continue to make Extra Virgin Olive Oil. With help from the local villagers we began restoring the grove and it wasn’t long before it was harvest time. Drawing from the wealth of experience of Ilias’ family and the locals we cold pressed our oil at the cooperative olive mill just a few miles from the grove. We decided that we would harvest the beautiful, ancient tree’s by hand.
This was a much less invasive method for the trees and would lead to a higher quality yield. Upon harvesting we sent our oil to be tested for its quality. The certificate we received showed that this oil was of a rare quality and more importantly, it tasted amazing! At that moment we decided to bottle up a small quantity and the rest is history.
Since then we have begun working extensively with the Zero Waste movement and slow food initiative New Dawn Traders. We want our olive oil to be as sustainably made and as tasty as possible because we know that what works best for nature, works best for us.