The phenolic composition of olive leaves of autochthonous cultivars (Drobnica, Lastovka and Oblica) and water infusions prepared in cold (25 °C/30 min.) and hot processes (75 °C/3 min. and 100 °C/3 min) were investigated in the paper. The influence of the infusion preparation method on the physicochemical characteristics (dry matter content, pH value and electrical conductivity) and the antioxidant capacity of the infusion were also investigated. The phenolic composition of olive leaves and infusions was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a UV / VIS detector, and the antioxidant capacity of the infusion was determined by spectrophotometric measurement of DPPH free radical loss. The leaves of the autochthonous cultivars was different in phenol composition, especially considering the mass fraction of luteolin, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, rutin and verbascoside. Oleuropein and luteolin-7-O-glucoside were the most abundant phenols, and the leaves of Oblica cv. had the highest mass fractions 95.44 mg/g d.m. and 7.11 mg/g d.m respectively. The increase the preparation temperature from 25 °C to 100 °C did not affect the dry matter content of the infusion, slightly but statistically significantly decreased the pH value and increased the electrical conductivity only of the Lastovka infusions. The higher temperature of the infusion preparation statistically significantly increased the mass concentration of the most phenolic substances, except for apigenin, phenolic acids and vanillin. In addition, preparation at 100 °C increased the antioxidant capacity of the infusions of all three cultivars compared to preparation at 25 °C/30 min. what indicates that phenols in an aqueous solution have better solubility at higher temperatures. Key words: olive leaves, infusions, phenols, antioxidant capacity, HPLC-UV/VIS