Maniatis · Press
Press kit.
The 30-second version
Maniatis is a single-estate Greek olive oil brand. The Maniatis family has grown Kalamata olives in Messinia for over a hundred years. Each November, the olives are hand-picked and pressed within twelve hours at the Damouras Brothers mill in Trikorfo, thirty-two kilometers north of the grove, under the Kalamata PDO designation. The US business launched in 2019; it's available at Central Market, H-E-B online, Brookshire's, Super 1 Foods, and at maniatisfoods.com.
The brand, in brief
- Brand
- Maniatis Foods
- Legal entity
- Kala Mata LLC (Dallas, TX)
- US brand launched
- 2019
- Founder / US GM
- George Maniatis
- Origin
- Kalamata, Messinia (southern Peloponnese), Greece
- Mill
- Damouras Brothers, Trikorfo — est. 1961 (Vasilios Damouras)
- Varietal
- 100% Koroneiki
- Harvest
- Annual, November–December (early harvest)
- Designation
- Kalamata PDO
- Product line
- EVOO (500 ml, 750 ml, 3 L tin); green + black olive spreads (6.7 oz)
- Retail footprint (US)
- Central Market, H-E-B online, Brookshire's, Super 1 Foods
- Mill certifications
- ISO 22000:2005 · ISO 9001:2015 · Bio Hellas · FDA · Kosher
Founder bio — George Maniatis
George Maniatis is the grower-principal and US General Manager of Maniatis Foods. Based in Dallas, Texas, he oversees the Maniatis family olive grove in Kalamata, Greece, and the US importer/distributor side of the business. He founded the US brand in 2019.
Suggested press angles
- "None of them shipped what they wouldn't serve." Three generations of Maniatis growers. Same grove. Same decisions — pick green, press cold, bottle once a year, blend with nothing. The continuity of choice, told across a century, is the brand's entire argument.
- The 12-hour rule of the Kalamata PDO, and why it matters more than "cold pressed." The specific biochemistry of what happens between branch and press in hour six versus hour eighteen.
- An oil priced by what it isn't. Every shortcut the category has accepted — later harvest, warmer press, multi-cultivar blending — the Maniatis grove has refused. The premium shelf price is the cost of not taking those shortcuts.
- Early-harvest Koroneiki, from a single grove inside the Kalamata PDO zone — an unusually specific claim in a category where "Kalamata" has historically meant "from the general area of Greece."
- The American appetite for place-specific, single-harvest olive oil — and the Greek-American entrepreneurs bringing it to Texas shelves. How Central Market, H-E-B, and a Dallas warehouse became the US launch of an oil that existed the same way a century before the stores did.
Key numbers, for fact-checkers
- 1
- Family grove (Maniatis, Kalamata)
- 1
- Mill (Damouras, Trikorfo)
- 1
- Harvest per year
- 12
- Hours, maximum time between harvest and mill (Kalamata PDO rule)
- 32
- Kilometers from grove to mill
- 1961
- Year the Damouras mill was founded by Vasilios Damouras
- 1994
- Year the mill was reorganized by the next generation
- 2015
- Year the Kalamata PDO designation was extended to the full Messinia regional unit
- 2019
- Year Maniatis launched in the United States
- 400 m
- Altitude of Trikorfo in the Messinia hills
- 0.40 %
- Free fatty acid on the most recent lab panel (2017 Multichrom.lab cert, half the EVOO regulatory ceiling of 0.8 %)
Imagery — high-resolution downloads
Free for editorial use with credit "Maniatis Foods". Commercial use requires written permission; email press@maniatisfoods.com.
Kalamata olive grove →
Interview availability
George Maniatis is available for phone, video, and in-person interviews. Reach out via press@maniatisfoods.com with your outlet, deadline, and angle. Response within two business days (slower during harvest — November and December).