A Simple Guide for Tasting Olive Oil
from The Organic Olive Oil Company
Tasting olive oil can be a science, for the professional, and a joy for the consumer.
This simple guide is designed to help the food lover learn how to gain a basic ability to taste, define and enjoy olive oils … but keep in mind, very few people spend a Friday night at home having an olive oil tasting! Oils in the pure form are a challenge to taste!
A Suggestion: before the start of your tasting, have some slices of green olives and a glass of water for each person to clear their palate between tastes.
Many people think of olive oil as something used to moisten food. It is much more than that! Olive oil is perhaps the ultimate condiment – it truly brings out the flavors and nuance in foods.
To better understand this, before doing your a tasting of a series of oils, test those tasting with a quick “bread and oil” tasting.
- Use some unflavored bread (like a Baguette)
- The bread should be first tasted without oil. Tasters will now have a true understanding of the taste of bread. J This is good!
- Then, taste the olive oil without bread
- And last, dip the bread into the olive oil, liberally soaking it, and taste again
When you taste the bread with the oil, it will be obvious that the oil significantly enhances the flavor. This is what happens with most foods.
With high quality olive oil, ‘less is more!” Use less than you would cheap grocery store olive oil – and the flavors will come together wonderfully in foods using high quality ingredients.
Incidentally – often restaurants put herbs and spices in olive oil on their table. It is usually rancid oil, with the intense “additions” designed to mask it. Next time you are in a restaurant, taste for this!
Now, let's get serious about tasting a series of oils!
How to Judge the Oils
Details will follow, but here are some basic tips. As with wine, there are three steps to tasting:
- Look
- Smell
- Taste
Look: a Visual Inspection
COLOR
It is important to note that color is not a significant component in the quality of good olive oil. One advantage to very green oil, however, is that is looks lovely when drizzled on a plate!
Unscrupulous olive oil makers will often add green food coloring to make the consumer think their oil is superior. Caveat Emptor! In a professional tasting, the color or appearance of the oil is not judged. The official tasting glass is made of dark glass, so the color cannot be seen by the taster, which helps avoid psychological pre-conceptions.
If you do look at the oil, these color ranges are classed as “good” or “normal”:
- Straw yellow
- Golden yellow
- Greenish yellow
- Greenish
- Dark green.
Oils of the following colors are considered defective:
- Reddish
- Dull
- Dark
APPEARANCE
Oils with the following characteristics are considered within the normal range:
- Clean
- Free of decantation deposits
- Cloudy
- Opalescent
Dirty-looking or dark oils are considered defective.
Smell
SELECTION OF AROMA
Aroma sensations are assessed for intensity. These can be either positive or negative sensations.
The positive attributes relating the aroma are:
- Green or ripe olive fruits.
- Apple
- Ripe fruit
- Green fruit
- Leaves or green herbs
- Fig tree
Defective aromas are:
- Metallic.
- Winey, vinegary, sour.
- Muddy.
- Pressing mat.
- Fusty. (true olive oil tasting term – hard to describe … somewhat like Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography: “I know it when I see it.”
- Mould or damp.
- Rancid... (the worst)
Taste and Tactile Sensations
Note: The tongue can only detect four basic tastes (sweet, salty, acidic and bitter). The sensations of smell are confirmed in the back of the nose, producing the feeling we call aroma.
These sensations are assessed in the mouth, according to their taste and intensity. The following are considered:
POSITIVE
- Fruity (for olive)
- Clean
- Fresh
- Other fruits
- Bitter (correct)
- Sweet
- Almond
- Pine kernal
- Vegetable
- Spicy (correct)
NEGATIVE
- Hay
- Dry leaves
- Winey, vinegary, acidic, sour.
- Pressing mat or ropes
- Reheated
- Frozen olives
- Damp, humidity
- Muddy.
- Metallic.
- Worm
- Rancid
- Rotten
BALANCE
Finally, the harmony and balance of the different tastes and aromas are judged, which we talk about in terms of:
- HARMONIOUS OILS:
- When tastes and aromas are in balance.
- UNBALANCED OILS:
- These are those in which an aroma, taste or defect stands out significantly.
How to Taste the Oils
Now that these issues have been discussed, and totally understood … J … It is time to taste!
When doing a tasting, try to characterize the oils tasted into these three styles.
- Delicate, which goes extremely well with mild seafood, mild poultry such as chicken, and lighter salads.
- Full-flavored, which brings out the flavors in foods such as pork, stews and soups, potatoes and fuller flavored salads
- Robust, oils that go wonderfully with red meats, game, field green salads, roast vegetables and pasta
- Pour a scant amount into a small cup (preferably one that masks the color of the oil) with a narrow opening which retains the aroma.
- Warm it with your hands by cupping the oil in your palm, putting your other hand over the top, and turning it for 30 seconds or so. This releases the volatiles in the oil, and makes its characteristics easier to define.
- After warming for a bit, inhale the aroma of the oil deeply and slowly to appreciate the aroma of the oil and its fruit. As with wine, the “nose speaks loudly” about the quality of the oil.
- Take a moderate sip, and as with wine, suck in air at the same time to distribute the oil in the mouth. The flavors will explode!
- Allow it to slide back towards the throat. You will notice two sensations in the mouth:
- An immediate “sweetness” on the tip of your tongue, which will be followed by...
- the “bitterness” all along the tongue, especially at the back, and finally the “bite” in the throat.
- Try to discern flavors quickly. Sweetness will be overwhelmed rather quickly by a bitterness – but it is important to try to “pick up the flavor” when you initially taste the oil.
- Try to hold the oil in your mouth for a few seconds, inhaling more air to release the different flavors and sensations …
- When you swallow the oil, assess the “blast” of peppery character, a very positive attribute evident in high quality, robust oil.
Notice how the attributes are present in the different oils in varying degrees. When they are found in harmony and well balanced, they produce the best and most exquisite quality extra virgin olive oils.
Now that you have a basic knowledge of olive oils, try them with different foods. Use good ones… and use them well!
