Extra Virgin Suicide

[theoldesouth]

Had a look and the bottle I've got says 100% Spanish Olives Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Suppose there, somehow, could still be room for deception?

[alden]

Labels on bottles mean nothing. There is really no regulation in EU or USA that is seriously applied. Olive oil can be cut with other oils (palm, sunflower, avocado) or other ingredients (solvents) to reduce its overall level of acidity to make the EVOO standard. To get the required level of acidity otherwise requires a costly, non industrial method of production. I test my own OO every year and it comes in always with pretty much 0 acidity....less than .02 percent free acidity. That is a negligible level. To give you an idea, to be called, technically speaking, a EVOO there can be no more than .8% free acidity and a VO 2% free acidity in the US. And these regulations simply mention that the oils in question have "good taste"...whatever that means?

I believe that quality tests on products, adherence to agreed upon standards combined with vigilance and enforcement is needed here. Bureaucrats are able to make citizens' lives miserable with all sorts of regulations, tests and paperwork but they seriously fall flat on their face when it comes to protecting consumers (health as it applies to food products) while combatting fraud and the criminals who perpetrate them. Of course, these criminals are often very persuasive at very high levels of government (sic). So much so that Swiss banks don't know where to keep the money anymore.

Buyer beware

Cheers

[theoldesouth]

Learning how to recognize and appreciate the qualities of the 'real handmade olive oils' is a pleasure that I'll gratefully accept.

Thank you for opening my eyes to the subject.

Are there producers of quality, commercially available EVOO whose product you've enjoyed that you could direct your readers to?

Cheers

[uppercase]

I know a girl who sells olive oil in a farmers market which she says comes from her in-laws trees in Florence. Tastes good to me.
Should I believe her? She's cute, so probably trustworthy.

[theoldesouth]

All this for a good vinaigrette?

But seriously…

Michael's got me thinking and curious to learn more about the subject.

Thanks again and

Cheers

[davidhuh]

Gentlemen,

this is indeed an interesting subject. The only thing that makes me wonder is why the sh** has not yet hit the fan.

It would not be too difficult a job to inquire how much olive oil Italy is producing itself, how much it is exporting plus what the local consumption is. From my own experience, most Spanish, Portuguese and Greek olive oil is usually honest. The crooks out for fat profit buy Spanish etc and sell for Italian, preferably Tuscany.

One of the best I know is Balduccio, www.balduccio.it/www.balduccio.it/Italiano.html. They sell in all EU plus Switzerland; I have not seen them increasing prices for ten years. Another unique product is Sotiris, www.sotiris.cc, made on the Peloponnesus 20 km north of Kalamata. Their 5l normal oil is already outstanding; I use it for cooking. The quality harvested in November however is difficult to beat and still comes at a very honest price.

Cheers, David

[hectorm]

I know a girl who sells olive oil in a farmers market which she says comes from her in-laws trees in Florence. Tastes good to me.
Should I believe her? She's cute, so probably trustworthy.

Dear UC:
do not trust that girl nor your taste. Those in Florence are Tuscan Cypress trees.

[theoldesouth]

Thanks for the two links, David.

[uppercase]

^^^
I agree.
My taste is at best dubious and often let me down.
To opine on olive oil, something I use most every day, just like I dress most every day, is really a bridge too far for me.
There's no telling where it all might lead.

[Gido]

Uppercase,

The good news is that taste (mostly smell actually) can be learned. We have all pretty much the same average noses (including the sensors in your mouth) and it is simply a matter of training to raise above average. That is why wine tasting courses can be successful. More good news, there are also olive oil tasting courses.

I get my single origin extra vierge olive oil from a Sicilian traiteur in the neighborhood. I trust the man and his connections (small family businesses) and above all my taste buds. It's great stuff.

[uppercase]

I do like smells.
I don't like civet however and I did get rid of my Jicky. And the Mouchoir de Monsieur as well.
Nor cumin, except on leg of lamb.
And no barnyard in my wines.

Honey is interesting and I'm told redolent of sexuality to some.
Plus tobacco. And I think those two smell sufficiently of vice to satisfy me.

[mrleiter]

I have just recently stumbled upon this short video from Le Royal Monceau - Paris. Nothing too specific, but lovely nevertheless!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFddpWGhmjY

[robert_n]

@ Melcombe:
I generally buy the Australian evoo, on account of the rampant Italian frauds. The cost per litre is much lower, but I believe this is probably also structural - the harvesting is done mechanically on flat ground, not manually on the hillside, as in Europe. My layman's understanding is that this mechanical harvester bruises the fruit as it falls (it grabs the tree trunk and shakes it), and this probably is not to the product's advantage. Also, many of these farms were planted essentially as tax-efficient schemes for those with huge potential year-end tax liabilities. As a result I have my doubts on whether a machine can be invented to prune the trees as is apparently required periodically (but this is a point of little concern to the scheme-promoters). The tax-reduction aspect certainly has caused a bubble and the prices have come down substantially. Whether that will stay the case is hard to say, it's such a young local industry.

[alden]

I generally buy the Australian evoo, on account of the rampant Italian frauds. The cost per litre is much lower, but I believe this is probably also structural - the harvesting is done mechanically on flat ground, not manually on the hillside, as in Europe. My layman's understanding is that this mechanical harvester bruises the fruit as it falls (it grabs the tree trunk and shakes it), and this probably is not to the product's advantage.

Industrial methods of olive oil production require newly planted trees, that are placed very close together but allow room for the passage between the rows of various machines. These young trees once they become fruit bearing, have supple, thin trunks that can be shaken by machines to loosen the fruit onto the ground. The fruit is generally damaged in this method, and this damage allows for an acidity producing fermentation to begin right away. Most often this fruit is left a few days in sacks or vats before being pressed. This delay allows the fermentation to continue and mold develop. One of the tastes we look for in olive oil is a slight rancid or musty flavor that comes from poor olive harvesting and processing methods.

In these large industrial olive farms, pruning is indeed done by a machine that passes through the rows with massive saws that remove branches of trees on both sides of the row. Improper pruning results in smaller, less healthy fruit. But pruning by hand requires skilled labor, is dangerous, time consuming and very expensive. For an artisanal producer, using traditional, non-industrial methods, pruning by hand represents the single largest expense item.

But the discussion here is not so much about industrial (for low quality oil) vs traditional methods (for highest quality oil), it has more to do with fraud, olive oil, labelled and marketed as such, that actually contains only a small percentage of olive product.

[robert_n]

@ Mr. Alden:
Thank you for the clarification. I believe the Australian industry is fairly transparent as regards outright misrepresentation, though it is a largely mechanized, large-scale enterprise. There is not enough skilled labour for the pruning/picking to be manual. I wonder what happens with the mechanical shakers after the plant reaches maturity.