RECOGNIZING EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL: HERE’S HOW

Rich in active ingredients and antioxidants, extra virgin olive oil is a noble fat. Its organoleptic properties, as well as its smell and taste, make it the best vegetable fat in the world.

Extra virgin olive oil, also known as EVO oil, is an edible oil extracted from the fruits of the olive tree and is a typical food of the Mediterranean area: a valuable and very ancient product with high economic value. We find extra virgin olive oil as the main food in the renowned Mediterranean diet, which, thanks to the amount of monounsaturated fatty acids it contains, is an important product for the well-being of the body.

Recognizing extra virgin olive oil: here’s how

Extra virgin olive oil can basically be recognized in five stages:

• Appearance
• Smell
• Taste
• Seasoning capacity
• Organoleptic properties

Let us now go on to analyze each of them in detail:

Appearance

We are generally accustomed to associating a good oil with its green color. In reality, color is not a parameter to rely on to determine the quality of the oil (in fact, it depends on many factors such as the ripeness of the olives, their type, aging, etc.).

The bottles we buy are sealed and therefore do not allow us to check the smell and taste in advance.That is why it is common to think that color can make a difference in determining the quality of the oil we buy.

Whether golden yellow or deep green, oils can be of the highest quality, clearly if the consumer were faced with an oil tending to reddish, it would mean that it is old and has been exposed to light, air or heat. And consequently it will present the rancid defect.

Smell

To tell if it is a good extra virgin olive oil, the smell test is ideal. By smelling the oil you can tell the quality of the product. The typical smell should be of fresh olive.

Smelling a good quality extra virgin oil you can also detect aromas reminiscent of the good smell of freshly cut grass, a leaf rubbed in your hands, a green or ripe tomato, an artichoke, an apple or an almond.

Tosmell the olive oil you have to prepare the mixture as best you can. Pour two tablespoons of oil into a small glass. With one hand, keep the small glass covered and with the other hand hold the small glass trying to warm it. The ideal temperature is 28°C. Uncover the small glass and bring it to your nose: inspire with your nose 2 – 3 times, sniff deeply to catch the olfactory components of the oil. Repeat several times until you can fully grasp the nuances of the aromas present.

Taste

If we buyoil at the mill and have the opportunity to taste it or if we buy it and then taste it at home, quality oil will have an unmistakable bitter and spicy taste because of the high number of polyphenols present.

To the taste, quality oil should reveal sensations of bitterness and spiciness. Tingling is not a defect; on the contrary, it precisely indicates thehigh presence in the oil of polyphenols, which are beneficial to the body.

Olive mill oil, in any case, retains more of the natural aromas of the olives, and the result is a fruity, pungent, enveloping taste that is broad and full of personality, compared to commercial oils that have less characterizing and more “flat” tastes and scents.

Seasoning capacity

If an oil is bitter and spicy, besides being a good salad dressing, it is certainly an important support for our body.

Olive oil is the condiment most recommended by nutritionists because of its high content of monounsaturated fats, especially oleic acid.
Oleic acid, in fact, has the ability to keep bad cholesterol (LDL) in check and good cholesterol (HDL) values unaffected.

The oil is also rich in polyphenols and vitamin E. Polyphenols, as is well known, are excellent antioxidants, essential in the daily fight against free radical formation, to slow cellular aging and strengthen the immune system.

Organoleptic Properties

Olive oil, in turn, possesses very distinct organoleptic properties, albeit with the variables of origin, olive cultivar, type of oil and production methods.

In fact, green gold possesses the three main organoleptic factors.

• Color
• Taste
• Smell

The color of olive oil can vary: responsible for the shades are chlorophylls, which regulate greener hues, and carotenes, which instead give redder/orange shades. Color assessments are made by observing saturation, transparency and wavelength.

Both the volatiles that give odor to the food, such as diterpene alcohols, triterpene alcohols, unsaturated alcohols, aliphatic alcohols, saturated and unsaturated aldehydes and ketones, and fatty acids and polyphenols are responsible for taste.

The smell of olive oil is defined by volatiles, which are light substances that we can “read” through our sense of smell; they are: diterpene alcohols, triterpene alcohols, unsaturated alcohols, aliphatic alcohols, saturated and unsaturated aldehydes, and ketones.

Among the best-known organoleptic properties of oil are:

• Harmonious fruitiness: the balanced taste of olives at the right ripeness.
• Intense fruitiness: taste more intense than harmonic.
• Dull fruitiness: muted taste due to the debasement of the oil, ruined by the loss of typical aromas.
• Green fruitiness: taste of oil obtained from green olives.
• Ripe fruitiness: taste of oil obtained from ripe fruit.
• Sweet: taste of oil in which there is no trace of bitterness or sourness.
• Bitter: one of the typical flavors of oil produced from green olives.
• Spicy: taste of oil produced from green olives.

Posted by:

Alfio Lo Conte

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Tecnico ed esperto degli oli extravergini di oliva, iscritto nell’Elenco Nazionale sezione Campania. Maestro di frantoio con diploma, conseguito presso International Extravirgin Agency.

Read more articles by: Alfio Lo Conte