Welcome, Intention, And Setup

S. Simon Jacob 0:08

I'm Simon Jacob, your host for this episode from Jerusalem. Before we get started, no matter where you are, please take a moment to pray for the safe return home of all our soldiers. If you're driving in your car, please focus on the road ahead. If you're relaxing at home, please open up a bottle of incredible Israeli olive oil, sit back, relax, and enjoy. This episode features a special treat. My good friend El Hanan Hellinger, affectionately referred to by all those who know good wine as Elk in his first cameo appearance on the Kosher Terroir. Welcome back to the Kosher Terro. Usually, when we sit down in the studio, you hear the familiar sound of a cork popping and a liquid pouring into a crystal glass. We talk about vineyards, harvest dates, tannins, and acidity. We talk about how the soil and the sun translate into the story inside the glass. But today, we are trading the corkscrew for something a little different. Though the language remains exactly the same. Today we are talking about the terroir of olive trees. Joining me in the studio is Yossi Palak, the CEO of Meshik Achia. Yossi and his team are cultivating land with deep ancient roots in the Shiloh region, bringing forth some of the most highly awarded premium olive oils in the world. But before we get to Yossi's incredible story and the operation at Meshikachiya, we're going to do something special. We have a tasting flight right here on the table. For those of you who are listening at home, I am looking at a beautiful, sleek black tasting kit from Meshicachiya that says, Bring nature home. It holds five distinct, beautifully branded little tins of extra virgin olive oil. Tasting olive oil is an art form, and while it shares a lot of DNA with wine tasting, there are some crucial differences in the mechanics and the expectations. When we taste wine, we look for a balance of fruit, acid, tannins, and alcohol. We swirl to release esters, we coat the palate, and often, if we have a long day of recording ahead, we spit. With premium olive oil, the three major tastes we are looking for are fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency. Here's how we do it. When you taste wine, you hold the wine glass by the stem. But with olive oil, you cup the tasting glass in the palm of your hand to warm the oil with your body heat, releasing those green, earthy aromas. Then you don't just zip it. You do something called stripagio. You take a small zip, press your tongue to the back of your teeth, and sharply suck in air. It sounds like a loud slurp. It aerates the oil across the entire palate, and finally you swallow. That peppery kick you feel in the back of your throat, that's the pungency. Those are the polyphenols, the antioxidants. And in the olive oil world, a cough is actually a compliment to the producer. Yes, he is going to walk me through these five incredible tins sitting in front of me. Picuel, an olive of Spanish origin that yields a fresh, green, and wonderfully herbaceous oil. Arbacina, known for being delicate, buttery, and light, perfect for an elegant finish. And Kroniki, a Greek variety, that brings a bold, perfectly balanced and accentuated peppery kick. It's a journey across different olive varieties, but they all share one vital unifying element, their home. All of this brings us right back to the very name of our show, the terroi. Meshekahiah's operation and groves are based in Shilo, right in the heart of the Shamron. When we talk about terwa, Shiloh is an absolute master class. We are talking about rocky, limestone-rich soils, high elevations, and a mountainous climate that has been cultivating vines and olive groves since biblical times. It is soil that forces the roots to dig deep, stressing the tree just enough to produce incredibly concentrated, vibrant flavors. What Yossi and his team are doing in Chilo is telling a story of the ancient sacred traditions meeting modern world-class agricultural brilliance. To taste an oil from Chilo isn't just a culinary experience. It's a tasting a literal piece of history. So let's warm up our glasses, practice our slurping, and dive into that history. So tell me your name?

Speaker 4 6:37

Yossi Polak. Yossi Polak. CEO of Meshek Achiya. Okay. Meshek Achiya, it's uh olive oil, 22 years in Israel, the best olive oil, I think, in Israel. That's all.

S. Simon Jacob 6:51

And you're based in you're based in Shiloh? Yes. You're based in Shiloh. Okay. So we're gonna try some talk to me a little bit about Meshek Achiyah.

Speaker 4 7:02

Meshek its farm.

S. Simon Jacob 7:03

Yeah. So it's uh So who are the brothers?

Speaker 4 7:06

Yossi, before 22 years ago, he uh take um take a place to make uh olive oil and he built Ukanah. Okay. Ukanah. He he yeah, he he bought, may I tell him, from Italy.

S. Simon Jacob 7:27

Yeah.

Speaker 4 7:27

The ball it's coming to Israel, but olive press.

S. Simon Jacob 7:30

He brought it he bought an olive press from Italy.

Speaker 4 7:33

I tell Kim Lobau liv noteta la kimeta mifal.

S. Simon Jacob 7:38

Okay. Okay. So he built by himself, the Italian didn't come for it.

Palate Cleansers And Pairings

Speaker 4 7:44

The Bapamarishonasu Ifilo to Nafal Le Toch Amelaxel. Okay.

S. Simon Jacob 7:54

Wow.

Speaker 4 7:54

The Hakakamashonimu Gomnifta.

S. Simon Jacob 7:56

Wow. Okay. Wow, wow. So he he died in the beginning just trying to use the equipment. Yes. So now who uses it? Who who runs the business? The brother.

Speaker 4 8:11

For the business?

S. Simon Jacob 8:12

Yes.

Speaker 4 8:12

Some of them it's Moni Lyman.

S. Simon Jacob 8:14

Okay.

Speaker 4 8:15

And the other one, the other name it's Moshe Namdal.

S. Simon Jacob 8:19

Okay.

Speaker 4 8:19

That's the two uh people that uh run the business.

S. Simon Jacob 8:22

Run the business. Okay. So we're gonna taste olive oil. We're gonna taste your special olive oil. These are actually different flavors of olive oil we're tasting. So one of the first things we need to learn is because I'm I'm really from a wine background, and I have with me elk as well, who's also from a wine background. So one of the things that's special about olive oil is that it doesn't, it's not the same as tasting wine. In some ways it is the same as tasting wine, in other ways it's not. It has flavors and nuttiness and things that you can taste in it. So you need to aerate your mouth as you taste it, and that's called stripaggio. That's the name of it in English or in Italian. So tell me a little bit about what we need to do. So let's put some in a glasses.

Speaker 4 9:13

First of all, the difference between test wine and test olive oil is the glass.

S. Simon Jacob 9:18

Okay.

Olives And Vines Side By Side

Speaker 4 9:19

In olive o in olive in wine, you have a glass, white glass. Yes. You can see the olive the wine in the glass. Yes. In the olive oil, you don't you take a glass red or blue. This is this is the this is the glass for the test olive oil. Why? Because the color of the olive oil, it's not the it's not the to the olive oil. Okay, that is the difference between the the two the wine and the olive oil. So you open, we take now picual, this is the the name of this olive oil, put it in the glass.

S. Simon Jacob 10:02

Yes. You make you put the you put the glass in your hand and you rub it back and forth with your hand from the top to bottom so that it ends up warming up the glass. So it warms the olive oil.

Speaker 4 10:19

Again. And when you test, you take the olive oil between the teeth.

S. Simon Jacob 10:25

Yeah, between your teeth, and your and your lips.

Speaker 4 10:27

And your lips, and put inside hair from the outside. Okay? Yeah. So you have you do that like this. That's all. Now all the testing is in the in the mouth. In the mouth.

S. Simon Jacob 10:53

Okay. So that's stripagio explained. Where you take the you take the olive oil into your mouth, you suck in air, we do the same thing. You slurp air you slurp air in and you oxidize it and you mix it around in your mouth. Okay? And then what do we taste for?

Speaker 11:12

You know, people don't usually eat out or drink it. It's more of a accompanying. So this is the we had what was it? Picual?

Speaker 4 11:20

Picual. You have you I have one more, suri, tsuri. It's come from Suria. Yeah. And it's it's more strong. You want to try?

Speaker 11:33

Yes. Yes. Okay. What's the dead idea with the apples? The apples are to change your palate.

S. Simon Jacob 11:44

It's a palette cleanser.

Varieties, Blends, And Chef Use

Speaker 11:45

So taste the apples. Oh, okay. It's cleaned the mouth.

S. Simon Jacob 11:54

Because the bread doesn't isn't as don't do that.

Speaker 4 11:57

This is more strong. So we're using green apples to taste the trees. I using with this olive oil when I make a fish.

Speaker 12:05

Oh wow.

S. Simon Jacob 12:08

This is new to me.

Speaker 12:09

I've never done this before.

unknown 12:12

Oh.

Speaker 12:14

I'm gonna go tell Marciano States. I told a lot of wineries. They make or produce are called So Marciano States. They have a a Greek olive oil and or in a Spanish or an Italian wine. Really, really high acids, really, really good with bread. We got olive oil from Castellari. Yeah. And we got her they said in Tuscany. Great olive oil. And in Spanish one, Cosmoster is another winery that the olive trees and vineyards are always, you know, they coexist. In fact, Moises told me that when he replanted L26, the new vineyards by La Sadara, the new winery, and he picked up all these 500-year-old olive trees and moved them to the base of the mountain. So they wring the vineyards, and he told me that the olive trees are very, very hardy. They protect the vines against the element. These olive trees are 500 years old. They can withstand the wind and all that. So it's actually a protective thing that he circled the vineyards with these olive trees. But when you when you go anywhere, like every wine region is always like olive oil region. They're so synonymous with each other.

S. Simon Jacob 13:45

Yeah. So where are the olives grown? The olives are grown in Chilo as well? Yes. Okay.

Speaker 4 13:52

Yes. So we have a w four uh six six one six six hundred oker from olive oil. Yeah. Okay, wow.

S. Simon Jacob 14:05

Cool. Okay. So this is this is suri. Yeah. Okay. So these are variet varieties of olives.

Speaker 4 14:12

Mm-hmm.

S. Simon Jacob 14:13

Okay. So what's special about sori? What's the difference?

Speaker 4 14:16

It's more strong.

S. Simon Jacob 14:18

Okay. Do we have another one you want to taste?

Speaker 4 14:21

Yes, we have our bikina.

Heritage, Ritual, And Symbolism

Speaker 14:24

Well, also, if we think about Eratusra and Judaism has always been really synonymous. If you think of like the whole Mishnah Kraki Avat, it's like Kiito Shemto me Shemon Tovar. What is it?

Speaker 4 14:42

Shemon Michael, yeah.

Speaker 14:45

So they're always drinking oval oil, and I really this might probably be my first time tasting meshika like this. I've always seen it at Amicha's house, and Amicha is a corn, so they give with Amichaya? Amicha, the mummy girl's.

Speaker 4 15:04

Okay.

Speaker 15:04

So I've always seen Mashika Chia and he uses it uh for for Shabbat. Nero Shabbat and Chanaka, because he's a corn, so they give him master to the corn.

Speaker 4 15:15

Yeah.

Speaker 15:16

And I never tasted it, so this is great because like you know, uh you know Italian olive oil, Spanish olive oil, and California olive oil, but I was just oh it's one of the Shabbat and meanings. I think I think that um yeah, I I was telling Amicha too that they that they should partner with Meshika. You tell me they don't make a lot of olive oil, but maybe they should sell this at the Yekel Shield. Yes, yes, yes. They sell it? Yeah, yeah. Okay, I don't I don't remember seeing it. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that's what we see.

Speaker 4 15:50

You'll be in the new one, in the building, the new now?

Speaker 15:53

The new winery?

Speaker 4 15:54

Yes, in Shiloh in the Shilia?

Speaker 15:56

Yeah, right. So I guess you know.

Speaker 4 15:57

So you have you have uh Meshikaya, many, many Madafim.

Speaker 16:02

Yeah, yeah.

S. Simon Jacob 16:03

Shelves of it. Many, many shelves. Yeah, in the new winery, you've been in the new winery. Yeah.

Speaker 16:10

So not not for some time, but yeah.

S. Simon Jacob 16:13

No, so when they first moved into the new winery because of the war, they didn't fill it up with things. Now they've filled it in, they got all the shelves full of full of stuff. So, yes. Okay. Next one.

Speaker 4 16:30

Okay. The last one.

Speaker 16:32

Yeah. So this one is this one remind is like not as mild as the pico, but not as um. It's a difference. Something in the middle.

Speaker 4 16:43

Yes, exactly. It's in the middle between the three and between the pico. I love the sori.

Speaker 16:50

I love um I love you like rovis oil. It's interesting because when we talk about oil oil, we use a lot of the same lexicon words as we would for like wine. Like this is like when we talk wine about this, it's a highly acidic wine. And with olive oil, it got this has a lot of acid in it.

Speaker 4 17:09

Yeah. This is the blend of Meshika. The chef Golani Sreli from Dan Acadia. He makes this blend and he using it in the hotel. And also in the school of uh the school of uh Gourmet Acadia.

Speaker 2 17:26

Yeah.

unknown 17:29

Oh.

Speaker 17:37

Yeah, you can tell that it's a blend and it's got some complexities and and simultaneously just a tired ascripted and smooth. Yeah, well, you know, every time we go to like a winery, and they are yesterday I went to Flam and I went to pastel, and every time you go to winery, and there's always bread and olive oil, you know, there's cheese, but I don't need cheese anymore. Oh, a little bit. And when we went to uh should we drink vodka, we had um olive oil. So it's just kind of like for me, besides for the vitamins and the olive trees, the whole tasting wine for me is always tied up with the olive oil. Just the bread and the olive oil, and then the wine and complete sense. It's a different taste. Well, both of them have the same like connection to the land. They're both very in the same thing where in the Sharmon by Shiloh. Both uh the wines and the gods, the they use the same gods for they use the same presses for olive press or vines, but they've been drinking the same stuff for you know two, three thousand years. A god, you know, they would make olive oil and they would make wine, and this is side by side.

S. Simon Jacob 19:04

They're side by side, but they're not the same, they're not the same press. They're very different.

Speaker 4 19:09

But all the time it's side by side. Yes. The kings of Israel. Yes, they uh when you go to be a king, yeah, they take the olive oil and gimshok.

S. Simon Jacob 19:19

Yeah, they pour it on you.

Speaker 4 19:20

Yeah, they they uh in the gum in the gumara, yes. Right.

S. Simon Jacob 19:25

They yes. They anoint you. They anoint the kings, they pour the olive oil on them for them to become kings.

unknown 19:32

Yes.

Speaker 19:35

So we don't so we don't use the meshakia for uh for melchamish and the shem and hamizha.

Speaker 4 19:44

Shiloh and meshakia. It's the olive oil of the menoah in shiloh. It's the olive oil to the menor.

Speaker 19:55

They use that that for the m for the for the mishka?

Speaker 4 19:58

The olive oil was in the mishkan. Right.

Speaker 20:01

Well that's the whole Hanukkah and the whole, yeah, is that Hanukkah?

S. Simon Jacob 20:06

Before Hanukkah.

Speaker 20:07

Every day in basic McDoch.

S. Simon Jacob 20:09

Yeah, no, it but also in the in the Mishkan. You had to burn the uh manorah in the Mishkan every day.

War, Harvest, And Resilience

Speaker 20:18

Just have to make sure you have enough hashka so that the uh when they find one bottle or something's like, you know, the so seal, so you don't have to make they should start making oil and for the Veta McDuff on the uh rebuilded like the manorah, but uh well so Muskov how is the mashaka yet sold? It's in this container. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 4 20:43

This is the small, this is for testing. This is for uh if you want to give uh your friend something. Give us, yes. We have for purim. Not for only for purims.

S. Simon Jacob 20:55

Yeah, but for purim you could. You could give them small small samples.

Speaker 4 20:59

And we have uh bottles between seventy-five mil to uh one liter? We have a pack to schn two liter, five liter, eight liter, and eighteen liter.

S. Simon Jacob 21:15

Okay. Right. Very cool. Is there anything about the harvest for for olives this last year? Like was it impacted by the war? Okay. Okay. Yossi tells me he's a brigadier general in the Israeli defense forces. Yeah. Okay. That they only have Jews who are working in their factory. Gamisho setam a sik a call, rakiudim. Even the people who are doing that. Harvest. They're all Jews.

Speaker 4 22:02

Okay. Kolla Gvarim Bameshek Bashvib Oktober Gujisu.

S. Simon Jacob 22:07

All the men who were working in the harvest were taken into Miloim, into the army. So what did you do?

Speaker 4 22:16

I Bachulhad.

S. Simon Jacob 22:21

Okay.

Speaker 4 22:21

Shura Kahalat's mo Ba Shweba October. She's a big uk.

S. Simon Jacob 22:26

So there was one young man who's older than me who took onto his shoulders the entire harvest. And this was on October 7th, which coincided exactly with the harvest. So he actually did the harvest and he saved it. Right now we're all actually going in and out of Miloim. I this last year did 350 days of Meluim. 350 days of Meluim. Yeah. Wow.

Speaker 4 23:03

But Elohim, as Gah.

S. Simon Jacob 23:08

Okay. And that's the way it is. It's we trust in God and we're gonna be okay. You know she's gonna be. And we in the Golani have a saying until victory. Okay. Wow. So where were you? Where were you serving? In in Lebanon or in Aza? An Azza. Thank God you're okay. Alright. Any other questions do you have about distribution or what have you?

Speaker 23:44

Oh I don't they don't they don't they don't export, right? The olive oil.

unknown 23:48

No.

Speaker 23:48

Yeah. How much how much do you make quantities?

Production Scale And Distribution

Speaker 4 23:55

We make in one year something like 600 tons of olive oil.

Speaker 24:02

What is that in bottles? In bottles? Yeah, at least. A lot? Yes, it's a lot. That's a lot. Yes. Oh, I didn't I didn't realize it was that much. I thought it was from smaller. Wow. So and you sell all of it in Israel?

Speaker 4 24:18

Yeah.

Speaker 24:19

Wow. I think you should export it though.

Speaker 4 24:23

We don't make uh exports. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.

unknown 24:28

Not yet.

Speaker 24:29

But I guess that we're in all of them in America and song Spanish olive oil and we've got Italian olive oil. You know, it's good people to connect territory to Israel and to be able to have a product of Israel in our soil. And I don't know, I just feel like always people want to buy Israel. They want to support Israel. So it's great that they have that opportunity if it makes sense, obviously, to uh many, many evangelists that come to uh visit in Shiloh in uh in the mountain by M.

Speaker 4 25:05

Kahia Olive Oil. Many man.

S. Simon Jacob 25:08

I can see how that would be a market for you. Okay. But he's a good distribution as well. Yeah. I'm good. I also mostly just drink it.

Speaker 25:20

I joke um that I I sell the little wine that I can't drink. I'm good at both, first time I'm good at both selling wine and drinking wine. Oh my god. Last night we went to last time we went to Castell. And then fine.

Speaker 4 25:38

You was you'll be yesterday in Castell? Yeah. In the night? What? In the night or in the morning? Because I was in Castell yesterday. Really? Yes. With um something like 10 o'clock in the morning?

Wine Visits And Tasting Culture

Speaker 25:52

I don't I don't do anything at 10 o'clock in the morning. I mean I first wine, she sent me a text message at 10 o'clock in the morning. Um I respond AA.org and go. I'm just kidding. I got used to people buying wine in the morning, but I just never could comprehend how somebody wants to buy wine in the morning. But you know, but after we went to, I think I mean very you know, first time myself is we got a lot to the point where um a lot of these beautiful, beautiful wine is new because I've been there a couple of times, but it was just gorgeous sitting there. They had a beautiful fireplace, and it's just really and then with Gil out of time and money. So we have always had oval there and uh tasting those fantastic wines. And then I went to dinner with a bottle of the new Givati Shayago Video. I got that bottle from the winery audit, and they sold the ove, the winery bottle. I don't remember what it was. But um, he has as you know, they gave up doing the single label. The single vineyard. The single, the single yeah, the single and they they gave up this yeah, it's a one with Kevin F. Very great wire, it's very fun. I had that for dinner.

S. Simon Jacob 27:12

I'm glad. Ken. Just one last story in Hebrew. Yashmi Sada. Ken. This yeah, there's a there's a restaurant in Rishon Litzion. Chef Shtemisemanot Ktanot. Ken. This restaurant has a special, special gourmet chef, and he serves twelve small portions that are very expensive but very special.

Speaker 4 27:40

Okay, Sheldorbin Yamini, chef Hadash Vetsail, Chef Sipur Svivait, Rukalamis Sada, Al Shem Shem and Zait Piqual, Shell Meshekah.

S. Simon Jacob 27:52

Okay. He's young, but he has a special story about olive oil, and that's his focus. And the name of the restaurant is Piqual from Meshekachia. Basically using the same name as their Picual olive oil. And also because of it's because of Meshekah. Wow. Wow. And they use the brand and they mention the brand meshia all the time in the restaurant. And at the end of the meal, every diner gets a hundred milliliter small container of meshachia's pikwalk. I'm not mentioning this because of a business. I'm mentioning it because it's because of the story of the specific chef who's just really, really special, and the restaurant's very special. Thank you. Thank you. Ta-da. Ta-da-da-da.

Speaker 29:08

Thank you.

The Piqual Restaurant Story

S. Simon Jacob 29:19

This is Simon Jacob, again, your host of today's episode of the Kosher Terra. Please subscribe via your podcast provider to be informed of our new episodes as they are released. If you are new to the Kosher Terra, please check out our many past episodes.