KAÏA

The mill, told properly

KAÏA is the olive oil label of Sarah Ben Romdane, built on what the producer calls a fifth-generation Ben Romdane family estate in the Mahdia region of central-eastern Tunisia. On its own account of itself the company sets its founding a century after Mohamed Romdane and his son Romdane Ben Romdane, and states that from the end of the nineteenth century until the 1950s the family was producing and exporting olive oil. The same page records that Sarah Ben Romdane was born in Paris to a Tunisian father and a Syrian mother, grew up in London, and began spending time in Tunisia in the summer of 2020.

The oil is stated to be made exclusively from Chemlali, given on the product page as 100 per cent heirloom Chemlali from trees the producer calls centennial. The producer states the fruit is handpicked early, as the olives begin to blush and turn purple, in November, and gives the acidity as 0.2 per cent. Its product page states the olives are cold-pressed the same day they are picked; its FAQ states both that they are pressed the same day and that pressing takes place within 48 hours of harvest, at a temperature below 27 degrees.

Certification is stated by the producer as organic under Ecocert, with the FAQ adding USDA organic; no certificate number or operator listing appears on any page opened. Sarah Ben Romdane is described as overseeing every step from harvest to bottling, and the company states that more than fifty women work during the harvest. No town, area, tree count or mill of its own is given on the pages opened.

From the public record: worldofkaia.com