Technically, cold pressing means processing the paste without exceeding 27°C. In practice, that number has to hold across the whole line, not only in the malaxer.
As the fruit passes through the crusher, mechanical friction generates heat on its own. It is the step everyone forgets. If the paste enters the malaxer warm, keeping the malaxer under 27°C changes nothing — the damage is already done.
So we measure earlier, and in more places:
- Crusher water runs cooler than malaxer water.
- Paste temperature is checked as it leaves the crusher.
- The working range is 22–24°C.
- The malaxer never passes 27°C.
The method costs yield. One hundred kilos of olives give 13–18 kilos of oil this way, against 20–25 with heat. We keep the lower number, because the difference is not quantity — it is polyphenols, aroma and how long the oil stays itself.