Our accomplishments in 2019

We are used to hard work. However, this year was special. Next to regular activities in olive groves (fertilization, pruning, mowing, harvesting, etc.) and sales activities, this year marked more achievements for our family farm than ever.

The review of our 2019 follows. We will try to list events in chronological order:

We’ve become certified sommeliers

From February to May this year Vedrana and I attended a course for sommeliers of extra virgin olive oils. It was very arduous because the course largely overlapped with olive pruning. But it was a really positive experience to meet so many sweet and interesting people with similar interests, and to learn a lot of new things. Especially about the evaluation of the organoleptic properties of olive oils.

Our tasting room is open

In April, we opened a tasting room for our extra virgin Bilini olive oil. It’s not big, but it’s cute! ?

There was a lot of work with the contractors, which we “handled” in parallel with the pruning and sommelier training. More photos and information about our tasting room can be found by clicking on this link.

We won two gold medals on Maslina 2019 contest

This year, we sent two samples of our blend Bilini to the Maslina 2019 competition. The goal was to compare our oil from the first day of harvest from October 2018 with the last day of harvest. The result: both Bilini specimens won a gold medal! ??

Click here to read more about our gold medals from Maslina 2019.

We won Gold in New York!

The global competition for the world’s best olive oils held annually in New York is a particular challenge for every EVOO producer. This year we won gold at the New York International Olive Oil Competition, for the second consecutive year.

By clicking on this link you can find out more about our NYIOOC 2019 gold.

We made a room for packing our EVOO Bilini

Since we sell our EVOO Bilini in our Online Store, we ship Bilini oil worldwide. Literally. From the US and Finland, to Germany and Australia. Everywhere. We became overloaded with packing on the table in our living room, so for that reason we made a room intended for olive oil packing. It was as if customers from all over the world heard about this, so orders increased upon completion. ?

Our Loyalty program is launched

Loyalty programs are not new, but they are not so often with small businesses such as family farms. After getting into the development of our loyalty program, we understood why. ? There are a million of settings and features, and everything needs to be planned in advance: What is it exactly we want to offer our customers and on what terms.

In short: our loyalty program offers the possibility of creating a user profile on our site https://opg-rakovac.hr/ and then collecting rewards points for every online purchase. These rewards points can later be converted into discount during future purchases in our Online Store. Clever, huh? ?

Elite decorative crate for EVOO Bilini

On top of the decorative boxes (with sliding cover and carrying rope) that we already offer in our web shop, we are in the process of listing a new product: Decorative wooden crate chest that will represent the flagship of our product assortment.

The crate looks phenomenal and embodies the perfect exclusive gift for your special someone.

Landscaping of apartment Bilini garden

Next to all listed above, we are constantly working on landscaping of our apartment Bilini‘s garden. The garden is compact, but our back still hurt. ?

We aim to get an “English lawn”, which is not an easy job considering that the garden is obscured by large treetops. On the one hand, this is good, because our guests/tourists have the opportunity to enjoy in the shade druing heat, but on the other hand, it is not easy to “grow” green grass in the shade.

EVOO Bilini included in the guide of world’s best olive oils Flos Olei 2020

Our extra virgin olive oil Bilini has again been selected for inclusion in the global guide to the best olive oils of the world: Flos Olei. Nice proof of our product’s quality traceability.

Review of 2019 and plans for 2020

These were the most important events and results of our work in 2019. We also have big plans for the coming year. Our EVOO Bilini is ready for sale and competitions in 2020.

We take the opportunity to thank all our partners and customers without whom all this would not be possible. We also thank all the readers of our blog and our website visitors in general.

We wish you all the best in 2020. Lots of health, happiness, love and love! ?❤️

photo source: pixabay.com