What is Levantine? An olive oil company? A soap company? Isn’t it Lebanese? Why isn’t it called Lebanese Goods? What does Levantine even mean? What does it have to do with fitness? Ironically, it all started with a protein bar.

Levantine Goods is the brainchild of Tony Haydar, a Lebanese-Canadian fitness coach with a passion for the time-tested taste of the Mediterranean diet. As a key component of this diet, olive oil is always on his radar. Yet, in his travels across North America, no store carried oils as flavorful as what he’d grown accustomed to in his ancestral village of Arqa.

One evening, while traveling in the US, Tony sought a post-workout protein bar. As fate would have it, the store he came across had just imported a selection of European olive oils. The store owner urged Tony to sample them, and after multiple letdowns, his homesickness grew more evident.

“Do you carry any Middle Eastern olive oils?” Tony asked. Not only did the store not carry any, but no one on staff had ever tried one before. Though curious, the only place Tony could think of finding some to share was his home village.

After an expedited shipment, an emptied bottle of olive oil, and a recommendation to put it on a shelf, Tony realized that if an olive oil enthusiast had yet to encounter olive oil like what he was accustomed to, then no one in the US had probably ever tasted stone-pressed olive oil, least of all his trainees.

Among these trainees was YG Garcia, a Puerto Rican accountant with a passion for Lebanese culture. At the time, García was pursuing his MBA in Entrepreneurship and couldn’t help but join Tony on the journey to bring Levantine to life.

The name “Levantine” was chosen because, while many may argue that their country is solely the birthplace of olive oil, researchers believe the Levant region to be the origin of olive oil since ancient times. This region includes Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and others, where people have enjoyed olive oil for millennia.

It was the seafaring Phoenicians who spread the goodness of olive oil to the rest of the Mediterranean world. Similarly, Tony felt it was his duty to share the liquid gold that was his village’s olive oil.

For years, hand-picked olives were stone-pressed, and their oil was consumed exclusively by local families. Tony returned to Lebanon and began preparations to bottle and share this closely-held treasure with Western consumers.

In February of 2024, Tony and YG launched Levantine Goods on TikTok Shop, and after many live streams and viral videos, Levantine’s Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil became the top-selling olive oil on the platform.