As I explain what the Olivery (pronounced like delivery) does, you will be tempted to scoff and stop reading. But power through that response because, on the surface anyway, Olivery sounds kinda neat.
Now in the middle of its Kickstarter campaign, the Olivery is a “smart” olive oil bottle and refill system. (This is where you’ll want to stop reading because, “ugh” another smart device — but keep going!). The bottle itself is made from a special kind of glass that helps the olive oil stay fresh for longer. From the campaign page:
Our smart bottle is made from Violettglass, a special type of light reflecting glass for a very good reason. Our friends at the engineering agency Miron in Switzerland did research into the behaviour of light in glass and it’s effect on the contents inside. They concluded that not all colours of the light spectrum cause fruit and veg to oxidise and, in fact, violet and infrared slow down the aging process. So Miron have helped us create a bottle that blocks all colours except these two. This special black glass means your Olivery oil stays perfect for up to six months.
If true, that’s pretty cool. Glad you kept reading? The bottle also has an LED lit base that tells you when you are running low on olive oil. Once you’ve used up 80 percent of the oil, a chip in the bottle talks via Bluetooth to the oLi mobile app on your phone that lets you order more. OK, so that’s not that new, there are plenty of companies working on auto-refilling — but what is interesting is how Olivery ships its refills.
Instead of sending you a whole new bottle, Olivery sells replacement olive oil in small plastic pouches that lay flat in a small box which can fit through a mail slot for easy shipping. Once you receive it, just pour the pouch into your Olivery bottle and you’re back in business.
As for the quality of the oil, Olivery says: “Our extra virgin olive oil is made from cold pressed olives in Puglia in the South Italy. In the middle of Puglia, you’ll find the Gargano National Park, a protected nature reserve of great beauty.”
The folks behind Olivery are looking to raise $40,865 to fully fund its campaign and produce the first 1,000 bottles. Early backers can get get a starter kit that includes the bottle and 500 ml refill of oil for €49 (~$57). Refill packs will cost roughly $12 USD. Though the campaign says it will ship anywhere in the world, the Olivery people told me that they are shipping to Europe the U.S., and Canada.
Olive oil may seem like a pretty niche market for such an intricate and “smart” system, but this actually the second startup we’ve written about in the past three months that wants to improve your olive oil experience. Earlier this summer, the Israeli-based Olive X-Press fully funded its own campaign for a countertop olive oil press. The company behind the X-Press claims that the market for olive oil globally is $10 billion.
Olive oil costs roughly $20 a bottle for something that will last you a few weeks if not a couple months. So ponying up $60 for an olive oil bottle may seem pretty steep. But if the oil is good and the shipping cost doesn’t add too much to the $12 refill, the Olivery might be actually useful, and nothing to scoff at.
