Driving on my way to Medjez el Bab, reaching the hill of Toukaber, a small town but big with its riches in agricultural golden treasure of the Olive tree, I was not aware that this areas can hide such excellent and rich resources entrenched in this landscape of an amazing sightseeing for those who want to seek some rest away from busy cities. It looks like an earthly paradise or a small part of heaven left there in the north-western part of Tunisia.
Stopping for a while looking around, I found out a breathtaking sight. I guess this is one of Tunisia’s best landscape that makes you feel go through a unique experience of physical and mental yoga, healing the body and the soul.
Feeling proud of such a golden area, I headed to the Ben Ismail farm to find out about the secret of the gold award of Triomphe de Tuccabor’s extra virgin olive oil.
Triomphe de Tuccabor’s extra virgin olive oil is only the outcome of hardworking family members, Mohamed Ben Ismail and his sons Salah and Meher Ben Ismail, both graduate from IHEC and ISG of Tunis.
Meher is a graduate of IHEC Master degree of Advanced Accounting and Saleh has an ISG Master degree in International Trade.
Triomphe de Tuccabor’s extra virgin olive oil was awarded, in April 2017 the gold medal of the London International Olive Oil Competition (IOCC) along with an earlier Bronze award in Athens in the same period.
Feeling such a pride of being Tunisian, Meher Ben Ismail told me more about this triumph. I was surprised to discover an exceptional Tunisian youth along with his brother Salah Ben Ismail.
“The traceability of our oil of excellence Triomphe de Thuccabor distinguishes us… Our oil medals in Athens and London are exclusively resulting from our farm. It is not a stolen oil without any history, neither culture nor suffering. The Ben Ismail Family reserve: the artisans of extra virgin olive oil” Meher Ben Ismail proudly said.
We target olive-growing tourism through farm tours for the visitors and olive oil lovers to discover good agricultural practices and control of the value chain including harvesting, pressing, storage and bottling, Meher Ben Smail went on saying.
Meher also said that the Ben Ismail farm intends to start tasting sessions in order to caution consumers against defective olive oils which is something never done before in other areas.
Besides, we plan to go through a unique experience in this field which is mountain gastronomy based on foods made by farm products exclusively from the farm, based on olive oil, he underlined.
Additionally, we are going to inaugurate our farmhouse store at the farm along with an olive library that speaks of olive trees and olive oil to enable visitors, who come to buy Triomphe de Tuccabor extra virgin olive oil, to make the most of a unique experience and learn more about olive oil culture and history, Meher Ben Ismail pointed out.
In turn, Salah Ben Ismail said that Tunisian olive oil, mainly in the northwest, is characterized by something very specific and unique in the world. The rate of polyphenol and tocopherol in Tunisian olive oil is extremely high which has started to take a great share of the world market because of its health benefits.
The goal is to promote the idea that the quality of extra virgin olive oil is directly related to health benefits.” Unlike other olive oil competitions, the London competition includes a health benefit score (70%, based on the phenolic concentration) and a taste score (30%) Salah Ben Ismail underlined.
As regards the location of the Ben Ismail Farm, Salah Ben Ismail said that it is in the region of Toukabeur, whose former name is Thuccabor. It is at an altitude of 600 meters compared to the sea.
Equipped with an exceptional microclimate between two adjacent hills, our farm has all the assets to produce this unique and sublime juice with its distinctiveness of fresh grass: Triomphe de Tuccabor’s extra virgin olive oil, he said triumphantly.
TunisianMonitorOnline (MNHN)
