Cold Pressed vs Wood Pressed vs Kachi Ghani vs Refined Oil: What Actually Changes
By Alyaara Naturals team · Updated
Cold pressed oil is squeezed out of seeds by pressure alone, with no added heat and no chemicals. Wood pressed oil (kachi ghani, lakdi ghani, chekku, kolhu) is cold pressed oil made in a slow wooden press. Refined oil is pulled out of the seed with heat and a chemical solvent, then bleached and deodorised. The difference you can see and smell: unrefined oil keeps the colour, aroma and taste of the seed, while refined oil is pale and neutral.
What "cold pressed" means
Seeds such as groundnut, mustard or sesame are crushed in a press until the oil runs out. Nothing is heated and no solvent is added; the oil is then left to settle or filtered to remove seed particles. Because pressing alone cannot squeeze out every drop, a good share of the oil stays behind in the pressed cake (khali) — which is one reason cold pressed oil costs more.
Wood pressed, kachi ghani, chekku, kolhu: one method, many names
| Name | Language / region | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Kachi ghani (kacchi ghani) | Hindi, North India | "Raw" (unheated) press |
| Lakdi ghani / lakdi ghana | Hindi | Wooden press |
| Kolhu | Hindi, Marathi | Press |
| Gaana (ಗಾಣ) | Kannada | Press |
| Chekku / marachekku (செக்கு) | Tamil | Press / wooden press |
| Ganuga (గానుగ) | Telugu | Press |
A wooden ghani is a large wooden mortar with a pestle that turns slowly, traditionally pulled by a bullock and today usually turned by a motor. The slow turning means the oil does not get hot from friction. Different parts of India have their own name for it:
Is wood pressed different from cold pressed?
Wood pressed oil is a kind of cold pressed oil. "Cold pressed" on a label only tells you no heat or solvent was used; the press itself may be a fast steel expeller. "Wood pressed" or "kachi ghani" tells you it was made in a slow wooden ghani.
At Alyaara, our groundnut, black mustard and sunflower oils are pressed in a wooden ghani by the kachi ghani method, and our coconut oil in a wooden chekku from sun-dried Tamil Nadu copra.
How refined oil is made
Most supermarket oil is solvent-extracted: the seeds are treated with hexane, a petroleum solvent, which recovers almost all of the oil. The crude oil is then refined in steps — degummed, neutralised, bleached and deodorised. The label often says "refined" or, for coconut oil, "RBD" (refined, bleached, deodorised). The result is a clear, light oil with almost no smell or taste of the seed.
How to tell them apart in your kitchen
- Colour: cold pressed groundnut oil is golden, mustard oil deep amber, black sesame oil dark brown. Refined oils are pale and look alike.
- Smell: open the bottle. Cold pressed oil smells of the seed — nutty groundnut, sharp mustard, toasted coconut. Refined oil smells of almost nothing.
- Settling: a thin layer of sediment at the bottom is normal in unrefined oil.
- Cold weather: pure coconut oil turns solid below about 24°C, and other cold pressed oils can turn cloudy in the fridge. Both clear again at room temperature.
- The label: look for "cold pressed", "wood pressed" or "kachi ghani", and check it does not also say "refined".
Why cold pressed oil costs more
Yield. A slow wooden press leaves more oil in the seed cake than solvent extraction does, so each litre needs more seed. For example, it takes us about 2 kg of sun-dried copra to press 1 litre of coconut oil. See cold pressed oil prices per litre for every size we sell.
Which one should you buy?
If you want the oil to taste of the seed — groundnut for frying, mustard for pickles, coconut for Kerala curries, black sesame for South Indian cooking — choose cold pressed or wood pressed. Our guide to oil names and which oil suits which dish helps you pick, or browse all our wood pressed oils.