Dica Olio
Volume #2
Tasting Olive Oil
The label on a bottle of olive oil doesn’t really tell you much about how it tastes. The variety or cultivar of olives, degree of ripeness at harvest, how the fruit was handled, and how it was pressed all affect flavor. Different olive oil producing cultures also have taste preferences, and the handling and storage of the oil can play in a role in the flavor as well. The only way to really know if an olive oil is what you want is to taste it.
In the European Union, where the term “extra virgin” has a specific and tightly controlled meaning, tasting olive oil means following a specific procedure to determine the oil’s organoleptic rating. Everything from the preferred time of day (mid-morning) to the taster’s last smoke (at least 30 minutes prior to tasting, as if that really matters for taste buds dulled by tobacco...end of rant) is specified. The tasters use cobalt blue tasting glasses so that the oil’s color doesn’t influence them (color has no meaning when it comes to the actual taste, although it combines with other elements in the aesthetic of a plate of food), and they only test 5 or 6 oils because even a trained palate can’t handle too many at once.
It’s not difficult to replicate an official tasting. Gather together a set of tasting cups of some kind. It’s best if they’re all the same, and even better if they have a lid of some kind. I like to use plastic condiment cups with snap-on lids I get from a local bento stand (the owner smiles curiously when I offer to pay for a couple dozen, but always tells me to just take them). While some folks might sniff at plastic, it’s completely neutral so it doesn’t impart any flavor, and the translucent cups mask the color a bit.
Don’t try to taste more than 3 or 4 oils, and pick a selection that includes a blended oil (like Bertolli extra virgin or any of the big name brands) and perhaps oils from different countries (Spain, Greece, and Italy). One of the new generation of Californian extra virgin olive oils would also be an interesting addition. If you know that any of the oils are stronger flavored, taste them last, and taste the blended oil first, since it will most likely be the mildest.
Pour a tablespoon or so of each oil into the tasting cups and cover them (it helps to mark them so you can tell which is which). Hold the cup in your palm for a couple of minutes to warm the oil to body temperature and release the complex blend of aromatic compounds. All you chemistry fans will be happy to know that more than 100 different aliphatic and aromatic compounds have been found in extra virgin olive oil, from alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and esters to furan and thiophene derivatives.
After warming the oil in your hands, remove the cover, quickly hold the cup up to your nose, and inhale deeply. A good oil will have pleasant smell that might be fruity or pungent, maybe a little bitter (but not unpleasantly so), or remind you of freshly cut grass, almond, or melon. You may want to repeat the entire process and compare your impressions.
Official tasters do each oil separately, but I think it’s a little easier for rookies to compare aromas side-by-side. We don’t have the sensory vocabulary or experience to make consistent comments, so smell one, then the next, and you’ll be able to sniff the difference a little more easily.
Next take about a teaspoon of the oil into your mouth and gently swish it around so that all of your flavor receptors get a hit. Inhale rapidly over your teeth to atomize the oil and release more of volatile aromatics. Along with any flavor notes, pay attention to the mouth-feel, especially any “fatty” or “greasy” sensation. Either spit out or swallow the oil, then rinse your mouth with mineral water. A bite of green apple, again followed by mineral water, between tastes will also help clear your palate
The lexicon of oil tasting is similar to wine, and just as confusing. Terms like almond, apple, bitter, metallic, muddy sediment, musty-humid, old, pressing mat, pungent, rancid, rough, soapy, sweet, vegetable water, and winey-vinegary are used, and each has a specific meaning when it comes to awarding an organoleptic score. Descriptors such as almond, cucumber, grass, apples, green peppers, and artichoke are really more reminders of flavor than what the oil actually tastes like.
For most people, the most characteristic flavor of good oils is a peppery quality, the bitter finishing flavor that Italians call piccante. A very young Tuscan oil can be loaded with it, and it can catch in the throat when the oil is tasted neat. As the phenols and other chemical compounds that give the oil its flavor slowly change with age, this peppery bite diminishes. Finding your own preferred level of piccante is important in determining which oils you buy.
Tasting oils can be interesting, but the mouth feel of a big swig of olive oil can be off-putting for many people. And, for the same reason that official tastings don’t use bread (the yeast alters the flavor of the oil), I think tasting oils with food can actually provide a better sense of the differences. After all, that’s how you’ll be eating it.
So I like to make a few simple things that depend on the flavor of good olive oil, put a little of a few different oils on each one (in separate dishes), and taste them. Bread’s a natural. Roasted beets and boiled potatoes are other favorites of mine, and simply cooked beans are perfect (use navy, small whites, cannellini, or borlotti beans for a real Tuscan touch). When oil is drizzled onto a bowl of warm beans, the heat releases the aroma, and the neutral beans are a great vehicle for the oil’s taste. A plain green salad (lettuce only) also works well to highlight the different flavors of the oils. First toss the well-dried greens with one part vinegar (use Spanish sherry or red wine vinegars, but not balsamic because it’s too sweet), then drizzle on from twice to three times as much oil and toss again.
You’ll find that the blended oils are pretty bland compared to what are sometimes called “estate-bottled” olive oils. The big producers buy oil from around the Mediterranean and blend it for a uniform flavor. Estate bottling typically means that the oil is pressed from olives grown at one location, and these oils carry more of the individual flavors of the places they come from. Different cultures around the olive belt have also developed different tastes, and they harvest and press their olives to satisfy their own palates. It’s up to you to find an olive oil that pleases yours.