Paris - New French Olive Oil Specialist - Première Pression Provence

New olive oil at Première Pression Provence

Walking around my excellent nearby market street, the Rue de Lévis, I came upon Première Pression Provence, a specialist in olive oils produced by small producers in Provence. This store has been there for a couple of years, but the unprepossessing windows had never enticed me to enter. That was a mistake.

Upon entering, I was greeted by shelves full of different oils, which can be (and were) sampled. I tried an amazing black olive oil, which, the proprietor explained, is very difficult to make and is made only by a few growers in Crete and Provence. I bought a can and can hardly wait to try it when I get home. Indeed, I bought a packet of three different oils, which were great at sampling, and the one pictured above,  which was the first to arrive of the 2013 pressings.

This one is for Paris, and I have already begun to use it, first for salad dressing and this morning on ricotta with salt and pepper, one of my go-to breakfasts. Spectacular!

As I told the proprietor, I am hooked on Italian (especially Sicilian) olive oil, but that may be because small-producer French oils rarely reach the US. This experience has led me to reexamine my exclusive us of Italian oil; I will definitely be adding French oil to the mix. 

Première Pression Provence 37 Rue de Lévis 75007 (Métro Villiers).

Bobby Jay