Seagate has been producing olive leaf extract since 1997. Until now, olive oil production has been kept at a minimum, sufficient to supply the requirements for encapsulating and bottling our softgels . The development work for this new product, olive oil in glass bottles, has been taking place for the last two years.
The ultimate goal of the exercise is to take the olives, separate the oil, and place that oil in an attractive bottle so that customers will appreciate the quality and all of the hard work. During the last 2 years, we have been experimenting with different methods that would yield the highest quality extra virgin olive oil.
The most difficult part of the project however, has been finding a reliable glass bottle supplier and producing an attractive bottle design. Unfortunately, we could not find a manufacturer of glass bottles in Mexico or the U.S. willing to produce our design. It seems that there really aren’t any bottle manufacturers left in North America. How sad.
In June we therefore began to work with a manufacturer of glass bottles in China that was very happy to help with our designs, produce the plates and lend their engineering staff. This bottle design is in its final stages, with an octagonal structure becoming concave towards the top for easier gripping.
We attempting to have the Seagate logo pattern appear in a spiral around the upper portion of the glass, giving it an appearance of a school of fish circling towards the surface. This last detail of the design is causing a lot of anxiety with the Chinese engineers due to the difficulty in maintaining the sharpness of the edges of the fish pattern as it reduces in size going towards the top.
Once this feature is perfected, the bottles will go into production. The glass bottles will arrive after we begin olive oil production in December. The olive oil will be stored in drums until the bottles reach the factory.
Sometimes due to road closures in Tijuana, it is necessary to take alternate streets in order to return from Mexico to to the U.S. via the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the border with San Diego. On this day, the traffic was diverted through the “Red Light District” of Tijuana, which is always an interesting place to visit on a Friday afternoon, though not necessarily a place to stop for a family picnic. The faces of the friendly people were altered in order to protect the “innocent”.
The fish picture of the week was taken swimming with a school of grunts. This is obviously where one would prefer to be if given the choice rather than driving through Tijuana on a Friday afternoon.
