The 2025/26 Harvest Is Here: A Season of Recovery, Balance, and Exceptional Flavor
Every harvest tells a story.
Some years challenge us. Others reward patience. The 2025/26 season was a reminder of what becomes possible when nature cooperates.
After a difficult 2024 harvest marked by challenging growing conditions, this year brought something we had been hoping for: balance. Better rainfall, healthier soils, and a more stable growing season gave our groves the conditions they needed to thrive. The result is a collection of organic extra virgin olive oils defined by freshness, clarity, and a true expression of place.
A Season That Started Strong
Spring set the tone.
April and May 2025 brought mild temperatures across Tunisia, creating ideal conditions for flowering. It was one of the most successful flowering periods we have seen in recent years, followed by a strong fruit set that left branches carrying noticeably more olives than the previous season.
That early momentum mattered. It laid the foundation for everything that followed.
Summer, as always in Tunisia, brought intense heat. July and August tested the trees, but unlike previous years, they entered the season with stronger water reserves thanks to winter rainfall. The groves remained healthy. The fruit remained healthy. And that resilience carried through to harvest.
What Made This Year Different
Three factors defined the 2025/26 season:
Early Autumn Rainfall
Late 2025 brought rainfall at exactly the right moment, just before harvest.
In olive farming, timing is everything. These rains allowed the olives to continue developing, increasing oil content while supporting more even ripening across the groves. It was the kind of well-timed weather every olive grower hopes for but can never predict.
This year, nature delivered.
Stable Temperatures
Compared to recent seasons, the growing period experienced fewer extreme heat spikes.
Stress leaves its mark on olive oil. It can show up as imbalance, excessive bitterness, or a harsher profile. Stability, on the other hand, allows the fruit to develop more evenly, producing oils that feel measured, harmonious, and true to their character.
Healthier Soil
One of the most important factors isn't visible in the bottle.
In our organic and biodynamic groves, improved rainfall and careful farming practices encouraged healthy growth of natural cover crops between the rows of trees. Grasses and wildflowers returned nutrients to the soil as they decomposed, strengthening the ecosystem that supports the olives themselves.
Soil health isn't something you can see when you pour a bottle of olive oil. But you can taste its effects in the purity, balance, and vitality of the final oil.
The Varieties Behind the Harvest
Tunisia is home to many olive varieties, but two continue to define the character of our oils.
Chemlali
Grown throughout central and southern Tunisia, Chemlali is a resilient variety perfectly adapted to the country's climate. This season it delivered strong yields while maintaining excellent fruit quality despite the summer heat.
Chetoui
In northern Tunisia, Chetoui thrives in cooler growing conditions and is prized for its naturally high polyphenol content. These are the compounds responsible for the peppery, slightly bitter finish that signals freshness and quality in exceptional olive oil.
Cool northern nights helped preserve that character this year, resulting in oils with remarkable structure and complexity.
Every Season Leaves Its Mark
No two harvests are ever the same.
The weather, the soil, the timing of the rains, and the decisions made in the groves all leave their signature on the oil.
Difficult years produce oils that reflect those challenges. Strong years reveal the olive at its best.
The 2025/26 season falls firmly into the latter category.
Not because it was perfect. Agriculture rarely is. But because the trees remained healthy, the conditions remained stable, and the harvest was managed with care from beginning to end.
We expect lower acidity than previous harvests, excellent consistency across our oils, and a flavor profile that feels balanced, expressive, and true to the fruit itself.
Harvest Timing
Our early harvest began in late October and early November 2025.
At this stage, the olives are still green and not yet fully ripe. The resulting oils are vibrant and intensely aromatic, with higher polyphenol levels and a more pronounced peppery character. It is often the most expressive moment of the entire season.
The main harvest continued through December and January, allowing us to move carefully from grove to grove without rushing the process.
Good olive oil rewards patience.
What This Means for the Oil
The 2025/26 harvest gave us exactly what we hope for every year: healthy fruit, healthy soil, and conditions that allowed each grove to express itself naturally.
The result is a collection of oils that are fresh, balanced, and traceable to a specific season, a specific place, and a specific moment in time.
That connection between land, harvest, and flavor is what we strive for every year.
This year, the season cooperated.
The 2025/26 harvest is available now. We invite you to taste the season for yourself and explore the full harvest report to learn more about the journey from grove to bottle.
XX From Tunisia, with flavor,
Naouel Bouabid
Founder, DAMYA
