Juice the way it tastes in the grove.
Why we started
“We pressed juice for friends because the shop stuff never tasted like the grove. Then the friends kept asking for more.”
Giulia and Marco, founders
Hesper is a small team in Paternò, at the foot of Mount Etna. We grow and pick our own oranges, press them the morning they ship and bottle them in glass that comes back to us. That's the whole business, and we'd like to keep it that simple.
A day at Hesper
- 05:30 · Picking
By hand and by headlamp, while the grove is still cool and the fruit is firm.
- 06:00 · Pressing
Washed, then cold-pressed at 4 °C. The pulp stays in.
- 07:00 · Bottling
Straight into glass, dated on the cap and packed with ice.
- 08:00 · Out the door
On the road to Catania and Siracusa, at your door by lunch.
The grove
Hesper Grove, below Etna.
Navel and Valencia oranges for our Classic juice, and rows of Tarocco and Moro blood oranges that colour up on cold nights at the foot of the volcano. We pick only what we press that day, so nothing sits in storage.
When we press
Main harvest December to May. Blood oranges December to April. In summer we press late-season Valencias.
What we stand by
Nothing added
No water, sugar, concentrate or preservatives. If it didn't grow on the tree, it isn't in the bottle.
Pressed the same morning
No stockpiles and no warehouses. Every bottle is pressed the day it ships.
Glass that comes back
Returnable bottles, and the peel goes to a local compost farm.