THE ABC OF EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

My activity of promotion of the Extra-virgin olive oil has convinced me by now that I take care for years of an autistic subject, whose code of understanding of the world and contrarily the ability of the world to understand it is least.

However, I keep on disclosing the ABC of the Extra-virgin olive oil in Italy and abroad.

ABC is very important since it goes to fill up that persistent void that is warned in the world of the olive oil: on the one hand the ignorance of the whole of the consumers and on the other hand the very deepened knowledge of the employees.

You succeeds in approaching the consumer to the Extra-virgin oil if you use an easy language and if you begin the driven tastings from the bases; in contrary case, if you storm the interlocutor of too much technical information, you could be boring for people.

My method is simple and uses of basic information of theory and a practical actions (tastings and combinings)

Basic information of theory:

•  The Extra-virgin olive oil is nothing else other than a fruit squeeze and, as what it happens with an orange juice, it exists a squeezing only. It is the mechanical trial that allows the obtainment of the Extra-virgin olive oil to make it different from all the other one, chemically gotten with the use of solvents. This is also the reason that why the olive oil is an ancient product that goes up again to the Greek and the Romans: first crushers are born in ancient age;

•  An olive oil is defined Extra-virgin for its objectify and subjective parameters. The objective parameter is given by the degree of acidity (chemical, not perceivable to the palate) while the subjective parameter is given by the absence of organoleptic defects; so an oil, born as Extra-virgin one, it is able not to be defined such anymore if it changes its organoleptical peculiarities in the time;

•  The Extra-virgin olive oil must be consumed fresh because after the first year, it generally loses its organoleptical peculiarities. So, it is important to preserve it in a correct way, mainly far from sources of light and heat;

•  The quality of Extra-virgin olive oil doesn't depend on its geographical origin: what is important it is to produce it in respect of the rules about the care of the tree, the correct process of grinding and bottling.

• It is not too much important the color of the oil for defining it as Extra-virgin. The color often depends on the type of olive and changes greatly from cultivar to cultivar.

Driven tastings

Just to begin with our senses, I usually make to taste three kind of olive oil:

A: defective oil, generally a rancid oil that is one of the most common oil;

B: neutral oil, or rather without defects but flat neutral, without scents and particular aromas;

C: yielded oil, oil with no defects and the unmistakable taste of the olive.

It is no possible to put aside by this first test about our senses, it is like to children, too. Through this first tasting, the consumer understands what is a yielded oil, a flat oil and a defect one. But the guideline to the correct reading of the label is important but not enough for recognizing of an Extra-virgin oil: beginning with the ABC, you can train your palate to the taste and you can be ready to recognize of an Extra-virgin oil.

Naturally the following tastings can direct the consumer to distinguish the kind of defects, but above all to distinguish the difference between peculiarity and defect (for ex. bitterness or prickly are not of defects, but peculiarities).

A second tasting could involve the taste of 5 oils:

A: oil with "rancid" defect;

B: oil with "wining" defect;

C: delicate yielded Extra-virgin oil;

D: middle yielded Extra-virgin oil;

E: intense yielded Extra-virgin oil.

Combinings

After this second tastino, it will be possible to pass to the combinings with the foods: although the culinary art is done by personal choises there are some basic rules to direct us to use a delicate oil with the fish and an intense one with the toasted bread or the vegetables soups. Therefore, it is very important to complete the the Extra-virgin oil spreading through the experimentation in gastronomy.

Autore / Fonte: Rossella Speranza
Mediterranean Food Promoter (Oldways Italia)
Olivita Program Coorder
Olio d’oliva Ragione e Sentimento, book writer