Image note: AI-edited image composition based on an original photo by Ayhan Çabuk.
My name is Ayhan Çabuk. At Green Agora, I focus on high-quality olive oil: its origin, its producers, its sensory profile, its analysis, and above all, the question of which olive oil suits which person.
I don't just want to be able to sell a bottle. I want to understand why it is the way it is. Which olive variety is behind it? Where was it grown? When was it harvested? How was it processed? How does the oil smell and taste? What analyses are available? And which of this information is relevant for the person who will eventually use the olive oil?
My approach at Green Agora grew out of these questions.
Understand the olive oil. Understand the person. Bring both together.
This page is my central author profile at Green Agora. It describes my path to olive oil, my working method, and the principles I use to categorize sensory data, origin, producer knowledge, analyses, scientific information, and personal advice.
Ayhan Çabuk from Green Agora | Brief Profile
| Name | Ayhan Çabuk |
| Public designation | Ayhan from Green Agora |
| Company | Green Agora GmbH |
| Location | Lüdenscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Focus | Selection, evaluation, and brokerage of high-quality olive oils |
| Fields of work | Sensory analysis, olive varieties, producers, origin, harvest, processing, storage, analyses, and personal olive oil consultation |
| Principle | Analysis without a human remains a number. Experience without analysis remains an observation. |
Who is Ayhan from Green Agora?
I work for Green Agora GmbH in Lüdenscheid. My focus is on the selection, evaluation, and brokerage of high-quality olive oils. To me, olive oil is not an interchangeable food item. In one bottle, agriculture, olive variety, region, producer, harvest, processing, storage, sensory profile, chemical analysis, and personal taste all come together.
The deeper I delved into olive oil, the less convincing I found simple statements like "This is the best olive oil." A high price, a medal, a country of origin, or a particularly large number on a laboratory report are not the sole factors in determining whether an olive oil is exceptional—and certainly not whether it suits a particular person.
My work therefore usually begins with two questions:
Why is this specific bottle interesting?
And for whom is it interesting?
How my path to olive oil came about
My path to Green Agora was not a straight career plan. Part of my motivation has a very personal origin. In 2004, I lost my mother to breast cancer. She was 48 years old. This loss stayed with me for many years and reinforced an attitude that later became important for my work: for things that are important to me, I want to take a closer look rather than settling for the first simple answer.
I expressly do not associate this personal story with the claim that a particular food could have prevented a disease or changed the course of an illness. Olive oil is a food product. It is not a retroactive key to the past. However, my personal history did lead to a special care in questioning, examining, and categorizing.
I have described the detailed story in a separate post:
The first school was the delicatessen
Later, I helped out in the delicatessen of my wife and my father-in-law. There, I kept encountering the same seemingly simple question: "Do you have a really good olive oil?"
Over time, I understood that behind this product question lay very different people and expectations. One person was looking for a mild oil. The next liked distinct bitterness. Another wanted to feel the exact pungency that develops in some extra virgin olive oils in the throat. Some people sought a familiar taste. Others wanted to consciously get to know the differences between high-quality olive oils for the first time.
For me, a product question had turned into a human question.
Not everyone is looking for the same olive oil. And not every technically excellent bottle is automatically the right recommendation for every person.
Since 2014 | Learning from producers, in groves and mills
Starting in 2014, I began to travel more intensively with my wife. My destinations included Turkey, Greece, Italy, and later France. In the beginning, I was looking for products. Over time, my perspective changed. I no longer just wanted to know what a bottle cost or whether it would sell. I wanted to understand why it tastes the way it tastes.
I visited producers, saw olive groves, harvests, fruits at different stages of ripeness, mills, tanks, and bottling facilities. I learned that quality does not begin the moment a beautiful bottle is labeled. It is the result of many decisions that begin long before.
Olive variety, location, climate, water, condition of the fruits, harvest time, and transport influence the raw material. This is followed by decisions regarding crushing, malaxation, temperature, time, oxygen exposure, separation, and filtration. Even afterwards, the work is not over, because light, heat, oxygen, and time can continue to change the quality of a good oil.
For me, good olive oil is rarely the result of a single brilliant moment. It is the result of many right decisions in a row.
How I evaluate an olive oil today
I never try to judge an olive oil based on just one characteristic. A more complete picture only emerges for me when several levels come together.
1 | Sensory Analysis
An olive oil must be smelled and tasted. I look for, among other things, fruitiness, bitterness, pungency, aroma, structure, balance, finish, and overall impression. A very intense oil can be extraordinary. An elegant and more restrained oil can be too.
Intensity alone is not a quality judgment for me.
2 | Olive Variety
The variety is an important part of an olive oil's identity. Tsounati, Koroneiki, Kalamon, Kolovi, Adramitiani, Hondroelia, or Amfissis can form very different starting points. At the same time, the variety never tells the whole story, as region, degree of ripeness, harvest, and processing significantly alter the result.
3 | Origin and Producer
Origin is important, but a country alone does not guarantee quality. I am interested in the specific producer, their region, their work, their handling of the fruits, and their decisions regarding harvest and processing.
The bottle is more concrete than the flag.
4 | Harvest and Processing
I want to know when it was harvested, in what condition the fruits were, how quickly they reached processing, and how the work was done in the mill. Terms like early harvest or cold extraction can provide important information. However, they do not replace a comprehensive assessment.
5 | Analyses
Laboratory analyses can help to classify an olive oil more objectively. Depending on the question, I am interested in, for example, free fatty acids, peroxide value, K232, K270, Delta K, total polyphenols, or individual phenolic compounds.
An analysis must belong to the correct product and be read in the correct context. That is why I always mentally connect an analysis value with:
Product | Harvest | Batch | Measurement Method | Time of Analysis.
A number without this context can convey more certainty than actually exists.
6 | Freshness and Storage
Even an excellently produced olive oil changes. Light, heat, oxygen, and time continue to play a role after production. Therefore, storage and freshness are part of my product assessment.
Storing olive oil correctly | Light, heat, and oxygen
7 | The Human
In the end, an olive oil is a food product that someone wants to use and enjoy. That is why I ask not only what the bottle can do, but also what the person is looking for. Someone who loves distinct bitterness may need a different recommendation than someone looking for a harmonious oil for daily cooking.
Analysis without a human remains a number
This sentence summarizes a large part of my working method:
Analysis without a human remains a number. Experience without analysis remains an observation.
A lab report can provide important information. But it doesn't know whether a person loves bitterness, how quickly a bottle is consumed, or whether an oil is sought primarily for cooking, for salad, as a finishing touch, or for pure tasting.
On the other hand, I can taste an oil and perceive a clear pungency, intense bitterness, or a specific aroma. However, I cannot reliably derive the exact concentration of a chemical compound from that alone.
The throat is not a laboratory device. But the laboratory also possesses no taste buds.
Sensory analysis, analytical information, and experience complement each other. None of these levels should be treated as if it could explain the whole bottle on its own.
Polyphenols | Important, but not a ranking for people
Polyphenols are among the technically interesting accompanying substances in extra virgin olive oils. I therefore study corresponding analyses intensively. At the same time, I have learned that a high total number does not automatically describe the complete quality of an olive oil.
The collective term covers different compounds. Measurement method, harvest, batch, and time of analysis are also important. A high value can be an interesting feature of a specific harvest. But it does not replace sensory evaluation, freshness, processing, storage, and personal taste.
More is not automatically better for every purpose and every person.
Current product-specific values therefore belong in the respective product and analysis contexts for me, and not permanently on a personal author page. This way, a new harvest can receive new data without my personal history becoming technically outdated.
Polyphenols in olive oil | Quality feature, taste, and classification
EU Health Claim for olive oil | Requirements and laboratory testing
Oleocanthal | When sensory analysis triggers a scientific question
One tasting session remains particularly memorable for me. During an early, more intensive tasting with the pharmacist and olive oil producer Atilla Totoş, I experienced a distinct irritation in my throat and had to cough. Of course, I had known olive oil before. But I had not yet understood it as a sensory language that can be consciously taken apart.
Later, I encountered the term Oleocanthal. This gave a personal sensory experience a scientific background. At the same time, this example made an important limitation clear to me: an interesting mechanism from basic research must not be turned into a larger health claim than the data can support.
Sensory pungency can be observed. A concrete concentration must be analyzed. Basic research can investigate a mechanism. A clinical effect on humans does not automatically follow from this.
Science does not become stronger for me when you state it in larger terms. It becomes stronger when you remain precise about what was actually investigated.
I am interested in science | but I am not a doctor
At Green Agora, we deal with scientific research surrounding olive oil in many articles. This includes topics such as polyphenols, oleocanthal, blood lipids, oxidative stress, Mediterranean diet, heating, storage, and nutritional studies.
One limitation is particularly important to me in this regard:
I am not a doctor.
My task at Green Agora is not the diagnosis or treatment of diseases. When I classify scientific work, I try to clearly distinguish between cell studies, animal studies, observational studies, randomized human studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.
A result from a cell model is not a proven therapy in humans. An observational study initially shows a statistical correlation. A personal experience is not a clinical study. And an interesting result does not automatically justify every health-related advertising claim for a food product.
The same applies to the European health claim regarding olive oil polyphenols. The respective applicable requirements are decisive. A high total polyphenol value alone may not be automatically equated with any arbitrary health effect.
If science is precise, marketing must not make it imprecise.
How I approach scientific contributions at Green Agora
When my name appears under a Green Agora specialist article or I provide a personal classification within one, I want readers to be able to understand how I work. In scientifically oriented articles, sources should be accessible, uncertainties should remain recognizable, and statements should not be formulated more strongly than the underlying data allows.
My editorial principle: What is positively and robustly proven, we state clearly. What are only indications, we mark as indications. What is not proven, we do not claim.
- Cell research remains cell research.
- Animal research remains animal research.
- Observations do not automatically become causality.
- Human studies are viewed according to study design and investigated endpoint.
- Current analysis values belong to the appropriate harvest and batch.
- Personal experience is not presented as scientific proof of efficacy.
- Uncertainty is not hidden just because a clear statement would be more promotional.
An example of this is our detailed contribution regarding the statements made by Dr. med. Suzann Kirschner-Brouns. There, her statements from an external video are documented and subsequently categorized scientifically.
Olive oil daily | What Dr. med. Suzann Kirschner-Brouns explains and studies show
Personal olive oil consultation begins with listening
When consulting, I don't want to start by taking the most expensive product off the shelf. I want to understand what a person is actually looking for.
Does someone like distinct bitterness? Should pungency be intensely perceptible or stay more in the background? Is the oil used daily in the kitchen? Is it about salad, vegetables, bread, fish, finishing, or conscious pure tasting? Is organic important? Are lab analyses requested? Is a gift idea sought? How quickly is a bottle consumed?
These questions can lead to completely different recommendations. Someone who is just beginning to get to know high-quality olive oils may prefer a different profile than someone who specifically looks for intense early harvests.
Taste is not a competition.
I don’t need to prove to anyone that they should like more intense bitterness. My task is to understand which intensity, which variety, and which profile might suit that person.
Sometimes, consulting begins with an espresso
For me, personal contact is part of what Green Agora is about. If a conversation begins in the showroom, a cup of espresso is often simply part of it. Before talking about Tsounati, Koroneiki, Kalamon, polyphenols, or early harvest, a conversation should be allowed to simply be a conversation.
This describes quite well what consulting means to me: not done in passing, not using a scripted sales pitch for everyone, and not with the goal of picking the most expensive bottle as quickly as possible.
Sometimes, a good olive oil conversation just starts with a cup of espresso.
The Green Agora olive oil showroom in Lüdenscheid
Many properties of an olive oil can be described. Taste, only to a limited extent. That is why the Green Agora olive oil showroom in Lüdenscheid plays an important role in my work.
Across approximately 360 square meters with a ceiling height of about 4 meters, different olive oils, producers, olive varieties, and sensory profiles can be compared with one another. The space gives us the opportunity to bring theory and direct experience together.
A visitor can get to know an olive variety, understand its origin, interpret available analytical data, taste the olive oil pure, compare it with a different profile, ask questions, and then make a more conscious decision.
The showroom is the stage. The encounter is the actual experience.
Visits, personal consultations, and tastings take place by prior appointment.
Green Agora as a curator | Quality does not begin with the flag
Green Agora has grown strongly with Greek olive oil. Greece and its producers remain an important part of our identity. At the same time, I do not want to reduce quality to a single country.
I am not primarily interested in which flag is missing from the assortment. I am interested in whether a specific product is interesting and comprehensible enough that it contributes something to the selection.
In doing so, I inquire about the producer, olive variety, region, harvest, processing, sensory profile, analytics, packaging, storage, and transparency. Only then am I interested in the sales story.
For me, selling olive oil means offering a bottle. Curating olive oil means being able to justify why this bottle belongs in the selection and for whom it might be of interest.
My goal is therefore not the largest possible number of products. It is a selection that remains comprehensible.
Trust through a comprehensible selection.
What I do not want to promise at Green Agora
I cannot promise that a food item will change a person's life. I cannot prevent illness, offer a medical prognosis, or attribute effects to a bottle that are not scientifically or legally supported.
What I can promise is a different kind of diligence. I will ask. I will taste. I will understand the origin and producer as far as possible. I will put available analyses into context. I will not automatically turn a large number into a major effect. And if I don’t know something, I would rather look it up than invent a pretty answer.
This is my standard for my work at Green Agora.
What you can expect from my Green Agora articles
The Green Agora knowledge base is not meant to be a collection of independent advertising texts. Every professional article should answer a specific question and, at the same time, lead into a broader context.
My recurring topics include, among others, the quality of extra virgin olive oil, sensory analysis and tasting, olive varieties, producers and origins, harvesting and processing, polyphenols, phenolic compounds, laboratory analyses, freshness and storage, kitchen use, EU health claims, and scientific classification.
I want these topics to work together to explain what constitutes a specific bottle and which information is actually relevant to its assessment.
Selected professional articles and deep dives
- Green Agora story | Ayhan’s path to olive oil
- How do you recognize good olive oil? | Quality features
- Polyphenols in olive oil | Quality feature, taste, and classification
- Early harvest olive oil | Understanding "early harvest" correctly
- Storing olive oil properly | Light, heat, and oxygen
- EU health claim for olive oil | Prerequisites and laboratory testing
- Is olive oil healthy? | Research and classification
- Olive oil and cholesterol | What research says
- Olive oil daily | What Dr. med. Suzann Kirschner-Brouns explains and what studies show
- Olive oil tasting | Green Agora in Lüdenscheid
Frequently asked questions about Ayhan from Green Agora
Who is Ayhan Çabuk?
Ayhan Çabuk works at Green Agora GmbH in Lüdenscheid. His focus is on the selection, assessment, and communication of high-quality olive oils as well as sensory analysis, origin, producers, analyses, and personal olive oil consultation.
Why does he call himself Ayhan from Green Agora?
Ayhan from Green Agora is the public designation under which Ayhan Çabuk appears in Green Agora professional articles, consultations, and in communication regarding olive oil.
How long has Ayhan been working more intensively with olive oil?
Starting in 2014, he began traveling more intensively to producers and various olive oil regions together with his wife. His practical engagement subsequently developed further through sensory analysis, processing, producer knowledge, and analytics.
Is Ayhan a doctor or nutritional medicine specialist?
No. Ayhan is not a doctor. His consultation at Green Agora concerns olive oil, sensory analysis, olive varieties, origins, producers, analytics, taste, and use. Medical advice is not part of his offering.
How does Ayhan assess an olive oil?
He looks at several levels together. These include sensory profile, olive variety, origin, producer, harvest, processing, storage, available analyses, and the question of for which person and which purpose the oil might be suitable.
Does the polyphenol content play a role?
Yes. Analyses of polyphenols can provide important information. However, a high total value is not a sole quality ranking for Ayhan. Sensory profile, freshness, processing, storage, and personal taste remain equally relevant.
Is it possible to receive personal consultation at Green Agora?
Yes. Personal consultation and tasting are possible in the Green Agora olive oil showroom in Lüdenscheid by prior appointment.
Is it possible to taste different olive oils together?
Yes. Specifically, the direct comparison of different varieties, regions, producers, and sensory profiles is an important part of the personal tasting experience at Green Agora.
My personal philosophy
I will probably never believe that one can reduce the entire world of olive oil to a single number. Too many things interact: olive, variety, soil, climate, harvest, mill, storage, analysis, sensory profile, kitchen, and ultimately, the human being.
In the past, I wanted to know more often which oil was the "best." Today, I am more interested in which oil is the appropriate one in a specific context.
That sounds less spectacular. But for me, it is more demanding.
Understanding the olive oil.
Understanding the person.
Bringing both together.
Ayhan Çabuk | Green Agora
Get to know Green Agora personally
Green Agora GmbH
Nottebohmstraße 13a
58511 Lüdenscheid
Germany
Visits, personal consultations, and olive oil tastings take place by prior appointment.
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