With pasta, bread or vegetables – olive oil is an indispensable part of the kitchen. But how do you recognize good olive oil, what do the terms “virgin” and “extra” mean and why do some olive oils burn your throat? Olive expert Andreas März provides answers.
Good olive oil smells and tastes vegetal and fresh, like freshly cut grass, garden herbs, unripe olives (note: not pickled, but fresh from the tree), green to half-ripe almonds, maybe even green (never ripe!) bananas, fresh leafy vegetables, artichokes, garden cress, tomatoes or tomato leaves. Such fresh aromas indicate the use of healthy, not overripe olives and very careful processing. In the mouth, good oil tastes green and fruity and more or less bitter and burns noticeably in the throat, almost like peperoncino.
Andreas März studied agriculture in Zurich. After working for a chemical company in Basel, he moved to an olive farm in Tuscany and fulfilled his dream of becoming a farmer. He lives with his family in Lamporecchio, works as an olive farmer and agricultural journalist and publishes the magazine Merum several times a year.
One of the highest goals of a quality producer is to preserve as many of the polyphenols contained in the olive as possible in the oil through careful, rapid, non-oxidizing processing. These polyphenols taste bitter, but above all they taste sharp and cause the characteristic burning sensation in the throat. If a fresh olive contains 50,000 milligrams of these valuable antioxidants per kilo of dry matter, then a top-quality oil may contain 500 to 1,000 milligrams per kilo, which is still an impressive and noticeable concentration.
If an oil is called virgin, it may only be obtained using mechanical methods, i.e. by pressing or extraction (centrifuge). Steam or solvents, for example, as well as the addition of enzymes or other chemicals are prohibited.
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Extra virgin means that a virgin olive oil is of a special quality – at least according to legal regulations, this should be the case. Extra virgin olive oil must meet certain analytical limits and, above all, it must be of impeccable sensory quality (see “good olive oil” above).
Andreas März publishes the magazine “Merum”. Merum presents the best olive oils in Italy in a special edition (available in stores from April 20, 2024, 9.90 euros). The centerpiece is a selection of 140 top Italian oils from the new harvest. The oils were selected from 307 candidates in a blind tasting and rated in three quality levels. The guide also contains useful articles and background information.
Oils that are not edible in their native form are refined, and this accounts for by far the majority of vegetable oils and fats produced worldwide. Olive oil is a special case, as it is mainly consumed in its native form. But there are also inedible qualities of olive oil, known as lampante oils. In order to make these suitable for human consumption, they must also be refined. This is required by law. Virgin olive oil is then added to the practically odorless refined product to flavor it, so that it can be brought onto the market as so-called “olive oil – consisting of refined olive oils and virgin olive oils.” However, it is illegal to market such oils as extra virgin or to add them to them.
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