How to taste extra virgin olive oil
Do not be influenced by the colour of extra virgin olive oil, as colour does not determine quality. For this reason, tastings are carried out with a blue or red glass.
What determines quality? Quality is determined by the variety of olive, at what time of the season it is harvested and whether it is harvested from the olive tree or from the ground.
Which extra virgin olive oil is better, filtered or unfiltered? Without a doubt, filtered. When the olive mills extract the juice from the olives, what is obtained is the water from the vegetation of the fruit, we have the pulp and the oil. This would be unfiltered or unfiltered oil. If it is not filtered, the pulp goes down the bottle, creates deposits and ferments, that is, oxidizes the oil.
What is filtering? In the oil mills we pass it through a kind of strainer or filter, we remove the pulp and the moisture, in this way we ensure that the oil does not evolve and does not oxidize as much. The consumer must buy or consume filtered extra virgin olive oil or extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil. That is what we can find commercially on the market.
1st Phase. Olfactory: Here we are talking about the fruitiness of an extra virgin olive oil, since it is considered extra virgin olive oil, we are talking about positive attributes, virtues and two very important issues in that profile.
- We are talking about the variety of olive and the type of ripeness that the olive has. In this case, when we are dealing with an early harvested variety of olive, the intensity of the aromatic profile is greater, therefore, moving the glass away from the nose a little, we already have sensations of an aromatic profile, reminiscent of fresh herbs, aromatic herbs, of a vegetable type, mint, green apple, all that profile that is much more pleasant.
- In the case of an olive harvested later, more mature, you have to bring the glass closer to your nose to perceive those more pleasant sensations in the sense that they are more attenuated, with sweeter sensations and ripe fruit.
2nd Gustatory Phase: Once we have heated the glass to about 28 or 30 degrees so that all the aromas come out, unlike other products such as wine, swallowing the oil, we must put it in our mouth and let it flow through all parts, because we have the flavors in different areas of the mouth, at the tip we will notice the sweet and on the sides the bitter, we must let it flow through the whole mouth to notice the aromas, we must also swallow it because that is where we will notice the spiciness, because it can be a spiciness that comes in the throat or on the tip of the tongue, both the bitter and the spicy are positive. We can notice another sensation that is not really a taste, but a tactile sensation, the astringency, it is like when we eat nuts that our mouth becomes dry, well the oil also has that, it is a positive attribute. It is an oil that in the mouth brings us the same aromas that we had seen when doing the olfactory phase. grassy, olive leafy, fresh and very clean aroma, no noticeable defects of any kind and it has something bitter.
