Food & Drink
Seasons Olive Oil & Vinegar Taproom
Freshness, craftsmanship, and history—on tap.
“I love to see our customer’s faces light up when they taste a fresh harvest olive oil for the first time,” — Soraya Aguilar Balshi
Local owners of Seasons Olive Oil & Vinegar Taproom, Tim Balshi & Soraya Aguilar, are at the top of the quality-focused olive oil world. In fact, fresh harvest oils from their mill in Spain, Almazara Andres Aguilar, recently won ten prestigious gold and silver medals at the 2019 L.A. County Fair and New York International Olive Oil Competitions.
Tim and Soraya are passionate about sourcing and sharing their freshly made olive oil and aged vinegars with foodies, chefs, and the creative communities who care about exceptional, healthy ingredients that you can enjoy every day with friends and family.
Seasons and Millpress Imports (the company’s wholesale import operation) began in Bethlehem, PA, twenty years ago servicing the top specialty stores and restaurants with premium olive oil and vinegar products.
LEFT: Soraya Aguilar Balshi RIGHT: Curtis Wilson, Manager
Tim and Soraya first met in Bethlehem during high school in the mid-1990s when Soraya was an exchange student; however, their company’s roots are entwined with Soraya’s family tree—or rather, the olive groves and family mill in Linares, Spain, that her family has tended for generations. She and Tim expanded the family business in the early 2000s as premium importers, and still provide wholesale olive oil to the nation’s finest restaurants and specialty stores.
And it all began with the olives, and its owners’ focus on green fruit processing early in the harvest. Many olive oils available on the market are produced by crushing over-ripe olives, often creating a stale, greasy and uninteresting product. Seasons creates their signature green oils by crushing their olives at night in early October, for optimum extraction conditions. The result is the most premium extra virgin olive oil one can make: huge aroma, with a harmony of tasting notes specific to olive oil—fruity, bitter, and pungent.
Their retail taproom is located on 36 West King Street in Downtown Lancaster.
LEFT: Tim Balshi RIGHT: In addition to olive oils & vinegars, Seasons offers seasonings, salts & gourmet kitchenware.
Opening the retail tasting room in Lancaster in 2011 was a logical step to share their passion and products, and they are thrilled to have become a part of the vibrant local food scene. “I love to see our customer’s faces light up when they taste a fresh harvest olive oil for the first time,” says Soraya. “I also feel proud to offer a healthy product. It is awesome to be around energetic and high-quality local farms who share our same passion and commitment to quality. Lancastrians are looking for authentic and verifiable, high-quality food that keeps our bodies feeling good. Our olive oils and vinegars add exceptional flavor to locally grown produce and proteins.”
