Lodi, Calif., Dec. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corto, the 100% California-grown olive oil trusted by chefs nationwide, announced today that its Corto TRULY® 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil in its FlavorLock™ Box has been named a 2025 Serious Eats Gear Award Winner in the Food category.
The Serious Eats Gear Awards celebrate the best kitchen tools, gadgets, and food products that excel in quality and real-world performance after extensive testing by the Serious Eats editorial team. Highlighting not just the best new products the editors tried this year, but ones that have stood up to years of the editors’ constant, rigorous tests, the awards span multiple categories, including coffee, tools & gadgets, cookware, appliances, knives, grilling, entertaining, storage, and food.
In its first-ever Gear Awards, the Serious Eats team recognized Corto’s TRULY® Extra Virgin Olive Oil in its FlavorLock™ Box for its exceptional design and the quality of the olive oil inside, noting its “built-in spout for easily dispensing the oil into a cruet or measuring cup” and describing the oil itself as “lightly grassy and well-balanced.”
“We couldn’t agree more with the editors at Serious Eats. Our Corto TRULY® Extra Virgin Olive Oil in our FlavorLock™ Box is the best way to enjoy and protect our precious extra virgin olive oil,” said David Garci-Aguirre, Corto Master Miller. “It was created to preserve the freshness of our just-harvested oil while making it easy for chefs and home cooks to pour, store, and enjoy olive oil that tastes as good as the day it was milled. Seeing our commitment to freshness and quality celebrated means the world to our team.”
The FlavorLock™ Box is a signature innovation from Corto, designed to protect olive oil freshness with a unique, oxygen-free packaging system. Each box is filled on demand with harvest-fresh, cold-extracted oil milled within hours of picking and stored in Corto’s climate-controlled cellars until ordered, ensuring that the oil retains its vibrant, balanced flavor. The FlavorLock™ Box also delivers meaningful sustainability benefits, using significantly less material and producing up to 90% lower environmental impact compared to single-use glass bottles, according to a 2021 research study by Carmen Ferrara and Giovanni De Feo at the University of Ioannina on Corto’s FlavorLock™ packaging.
"I use Corto because I love the way their oils taste and how they contribute to the uniqueness of my dishes. With Corto, I get the texture–the smoothness and creaminess–I seek in my pasta that I cannot get with other olive oils," said Chef Silvia Barban of LaRina Pastificio & Vino in Brooklyn.
Rooted in its Italian heritage and driven by innovation, Corto continues to redefine what premium olive oil means for both professional kitchens and home cooks. This latest recognition from Serious Eats reinforces Corto’s leadership in producing olive oils that embody authenticity, sustainability, and exceptional flavor.
You can view the full list of winners here: https://www.seriouseats.com/serious-eats-gear-awards-2025-11833919.
Quick Facts:
Award: Serious Eats Gear Awards 2025
Category: Food
Winning Product: Corto Corto TRULY® 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil in its FlavorLock™ Box
Recognized For: Intelligently designed packaging, lightly grassy and well-balanced flavor
About the Awards: The first-ever Serious Eats Gear Awards spotlight the best kitchen tools, gadgets, and food products across multiple categories, including cookware, entertaining, coffee, knives, grilling, and more.
Availability: Available at https://corto-olive.com/
ABOUT CORTO OLIVE CO.
Rooted in its Italian heritage, inspired by innovation, and committed to its values of transparency and quality, Corto has been producing the highest quality, freshest, 100% California olive oil since 2005. Made from beautifully fresh olives grown in California groves, the oil is expertly blended by Corto’s Master Miller to achieve a stunningly bright flavor profile that professional chefs have relied on for over a decade to enhance their favorite dishes. Corto currently offers consumers several award-winning oil varieties to fit every type of cooking: TRULY® Extra Virgin Olive Oil, limited-edition Agrumato-Method olive oil, La Padella® Sauté Oil, and the Chef’s Essentials Kit, featuring the exclusive Piccolo® Datterini Baby Plum Tomatoes from Stanislaus Foods. The Company also offers Club Corto memberships and virtual tasting experiences.
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Molly Antos T: (847) 848-2090 corto-pr@dadascope.com
