Olive You
This is the oily truth about olive oil. Not all oils are created equal, end of story.
I really did not understand this concept until I found myself at an expo in Verona, Italy called “Vinitaly”. I thought I was just going to a big wine expo, but it was so much more. They had a presentation of the Italian olive oil guide. I was a little taken back at how many varieties of olives there are and the differences in olive oils. I tasted olive oils that burned my throat going down and then I tasted some that were about as smooth as a good Tennessee whisky.
Olives are actually a fruit and they grow on trees. I am surrounded by olives and grapes in my region of Italy. Olives are also considered a superfood because they are so rich in nutrients and monounsaturated fat, which is the good healthy fat. Again I will say, even after telling you how good they are, not all olive oils are created equal.
There is even an International Olive Council (IOC) (https://www.internationaloliveoil.org/) has a charter that determines the criteria for different olive oils, consisting of their quality and pureness, just to name a few. This can all be super confusing at first, trust me, I walked around “Vinitaly” for a day, dazed and confused in an olive oil high. Generally olive oil is rated by flavor, how it is made, and acidity level.
Since I have been in Italy, I have had the pleasure of watching what happens after the olives ripen on the trees. They were harvested by hand, quality checked, rinsed, crushed, pressed and bottled.
The olive oil is separated into 4 categories, depending on their taste and aroma (organoleptic) and analytic characteristics (degree of acidity). These 4 categories are extra virgin, virgin, ordinary virgin, and laminate virgin.
Lampante virgin olive oil is the lowest quality olive oil, and it comes from bad fruit or bad processing and not fit for human consumption. (1) Ordinary virgin olive oil is another inferior oil, and from what I understand, soon the IOC might change the classification to lampante olive oil. In fact, the European Union has eliminated this category already. (2) Virgin olive oil quality is lower than extra virgin olive oils, but acceptable. (3) And last and best of all, the highest quality of olive oil, the extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). EVOO actually accounts for less than 10% of oil produced in most oil producing countries. (4) Positive attributes to olive oil should be, a nice fruity taste, some bitterness and pungency. A defective oil would taste along the lines of fusty, musty, vinegary, acidic, sour, metallic, rancid, and possibly seeing muddy sediments. (5)
With all that being said, what do you look for on the shelf? According to a study that was held at UC Davis, 73% of the top-selling imported brands to America failed sensory panels. The link directly to that study is online http://oliveoil.ucdavis.edu/research/files/report041211finalreduced.pdf. (6)
Ok, enough science talk and facts, what you want to do is look for an oil that is a deep green color, it may have a soft and buttery flavor, or sometimes spicy and sharp hint to it. I for one, prefer the spicy and sharp profile of olive oil. Look for a label that says “first cold pressed”, that is the good stuff. If you see a label that says “blended”, “comprised of”, “pure olive oil”, “classic olive oil” or any random combination, put the bottle down and just walk away, trust me on this.
Sources:
1. https://www.oliveoilsource.com/definition/lampante-virgin-olive-oil
2. https://www.oliveoilsource.com/definition/ordinary-virgin-olive-oil
3. https://www.oliveoilsource.com/definition/virgin-olive-oil
4. https://www.oliveoilsource.com/definition/extra-virgin-olive-oil
5. https://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/olive-oil-tasting-sheets
6. https://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/adulterated-fraudulent-extra-virgin-olive-oil