How to taste EVO oil

Oil tasting is the best known method for evaluating the quality of an extra virgin olive oil.

Expert tasters evaluate various characteristics of oils on a scale of one to ten and assign a value for each of the oil's characteristics:

• Fruity aroma 
• Amaro 
• piccante

Alongside these characteristics of extra virgin olive oil, oil experts also note possible defects, such as the presence of unpleasant odors and flavors which may be caused by the low quality of the olives or by excessive time elapsed between the harvest of the olives and the squeezing (crushing).

How to examine an EVO oil

The quality of EVO oil is examined through sight, smell and taste. Experts pour the oil into a small glass and hold it in the palm of their hand to bring it to a temperature of 28 degrees before tasting it. Then we proceed with the olfactory examination and finally the tasting.

The tasting technique is described below.

VISTA: bright green is not synonymous with quality. The color of the oil can vary from a straw yellow to an intense green depending on the cultivar, harvest time and type of processing. It's not the chromatic shades that make the difference.

SMELL: before proceeding with the olfactory examination, hold the glass in the palm of the hand in order to bring the oil to a temperature close to 28°C, the point at which the oil expresses its aromatic components to the maximum (just wait until moment in which you almost no longer feel the difference between the glass and the heat of your hand). And then he brings his nose closer to the inside of the glass.

TASTE: fruity, bitter and spicy. During the tasting it is important to take in air with short and successive aspirations, bring the tongue against the palate keeping the lips semi open emulsifying oil, saliva and oxygen, tasting the oil for at least 20-30 seconds.

Through sensory analysis, the valuable olfactory characteristics are identified such as fruitiness, aromas, notes that recall fresh, floral, herbaceous natural components and the bitter, spicy, sweet taste, grass, vegetables, fruit, etc.

As we have already said, the color of the oil does not determine its quality, therefore to prevent oil tasters from being influenced by the color, blue glasses are used for tasting.

The main defects can be:

• Heating/Sludge: characteristic of oil obtained from olives piled up or preserved in conditions such as to have suffered an advanced degree of anaerobic fermentation
• Mould-humidity: characteristic of oil obtained from fruits in which abundant fungi and yeasts have developed due to having remained stored for many days and in humid environments.
• Winey-vinegary: characteristic of some oils which recalls that of wine or vinegar. It is essentially due to an aerobic fermentation process of the olives or a cleaning problem in the transformation and separation phases, which leads to the formation of acetic acid, ethyl acetate and ethanol.
• Metallic: reminiscent of metal. It is characteristic of oil kept in contact with metal surfaces for a long time during grinding and kneading processes. • Rancid: typical of oils that have undergone an intense oxidative process.
• Hay-wood: characteristic of some oils coming from dried olives.
• Coarse: thick and pasty oral / tactile sensation produced by some old oils.
• Soil: found in oil obtained from olives harvested with soil or mud and unwashed.
• Worm: oil obtained from olives heavily affected by olive fly larvae.

What are the advantages of EVO oil?

Fruity: concerns the intensity of perfumes that the oil gives off to the sense of smell and via the retro-nasal route. Fruitiness is classified as light, medium or intense fruitiness.

Amaro – this component is perceived only when tasted; the characteristic of bitterness, when persistent and balanced, is a quality that often denotes from a chemical point of view a product very rich in polyphenols with an antioxidant nature (vitamin E);

piccante – this component can also be perceived only when tasted; in the section of the oral cavity that precedes entry into the throat, it represents a typical characteristic of the oils of our territory and can indicate the presence of rich quantities of polyphenols (insert link that explains what polyphenols are). 

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