I am seeking olive oil with premium taste

[poorcarver]

Under the heading of what it is worth. Generally good quality OO should "burn" at the back of the throat. I am not talking discomfort, but a definite sensation.

[AllDone]

I use the California Estate OO from Trader Joe's. The McEvoy stuff is great, but the price alone burns your throat.

I've cut down on the amount that I use for cooking and drizzle cold oil on the finished food instead since the flavor of OO is so volatile with heat. My favorite evening snack is air popped popcorn with olive oil.

I thought that I was obsessed with olive oil until I volunteered to work at a polling place. I was assigned to work with a Greek immigrant and for sixteen hours he talked about finding land for olive trees, planting olive trees, watering olive trees, caring for olive trees, picking olives, crushing olives, storing olive oil, selling olive oil, the stupendous amount of olive oil that the average Greek family uses, and the even more stupendous amount a Greek restaurant uses. I was so traumatized that I went home and signed up for permanent mail voter status so that I never have to set foot in a polling place again.

The problem with coconut oil is that it tastes like coconut and that gets tedious. Plus it reminds me of the coconut oil sun tan lotion the mean girls wore in the summer in high school.

[UtahSkier]

I also recommend the boutique Olive Oil shops. I taste test their pure olive oils, but generally buy the ones with the highest polyphenol counts. I use that oil with their 18 year aged balsamic vinegar on salads.


This oil will be a bit bitter (throat burn), but I cannot taste it on the salad.
I use the California Estate oil from TJ for cooking.


Other vegetable fats to consider; Coconut flakes and 100% dark chocolate (Ghiradeli baking is the best). I consume all 3 vegetable fats nearly every day... for variety.


Off Topic - since I have been eating coconut flakes and dark chocolate (along with sardines) as my breakfast, I have been thinking that Mounds and Almond Joy are almost healthy candy bars... if they just removed that sugar.

[Lsbcal]

Recently we went on a tour in Italy and the lady who ran it owns an olive grove. She had interesting suggestions that I've totally forgotten but what I do remember is: buy extra virgin olive oil and pay a little more.

We'll probably be looking around for some olive oil too and will most likely purchase ours at Whole Foods as we trust them to do the proper DD.

I love just a little bit of olive oil on a salad with a nice vinegar (maybe balsamic). DW doesn't like too much vinegar.

Here is what one web source says about extra virgin olive oil:

Quote:

Extra virgin olive oil is made simply by crushing olives and extracting the juice. It is the only cooking oil that is made without the use of chemicals and industrial refining. Extra virgin olive oil must have no taste “defects.” It needs to have a nice flavor of fresh olives and achieve higher scores in lab tests for its chemical composition than other grades. Since extra virgin olive oil is simply fruit juice without any additives, its quality and taste are influenced by the varieties of olives, the terroir where they were grown, and the countless decisions and production practices of a dedicated producer.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Recently we went on a tour in Italy and the lady who ran it owns an olive grove. She had interesting suggestions that I've totally forgotten but what I do remember is: buy extra virgin olive oil and pay a little more. We'll probably be looking around for some olive oil too and will most likely purchase ours at Whole Foods as we trust them to do the proper DD. I love just a little bit of olive oil on a salad with a nice vinegar (maybe balsamic). DW doesn't like too much vinegar. Here is what one web source says about extra virgin olive oil:

But Whole Foods Olive oil failed the purity test. They've probably fixed that now. When this came out (UC Davis Study 2010/2011) many well respected brands were found to be adulterated.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 But Whole Foods Olive oil failed the purity test. They've probably fixed that now. When this came out (UC Davis Study 2010/2011) many well respected brands were found to be adulterated.

That is interesting. I wasn't thinking of any particular brand, just something from their store.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal That is interesting. I wasn't thinking of any particular brand, just something from their store.

This is a bit old news now - but you can see here which brands were OK when tested in 2010 and which were not. Which Olive Oil to Buy? The Olive Oil Fraud! | Real Food For Life

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 This is a bit old news now - but you can see here which brands were OK when tested in 2010 and which were not. Which Olive Oil to Buy? The Olive Oil Fraud! | Real Food For Life

Audrey, that is kind of an eye opener. Here is what Whole Foods says now about its sources:
Product FAQs: Olive Oil | Whole Foods Market

Hopefully Whole Foods has got their act together. I guess without me setting up a lab, I'll have to trust some source.

[Winemaker]

Il Fiorella Olive Oil near Fairfield CA near Mankas Corner and Suisun Valley. They have great oils, some flavored if you choose. They do have discounts, and all oil is from local trees. At their suggestion, we purchase during the winter months since heat messes with the stability/bitterness and they ship it back east. Real EEOV should congeal or thicken when chilled.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by poorcarver Under the heading of what it is worth. Generally good quality OO should "burn" at the back of the throat. I am not talking discomfort, but a definite sensation.

I did not know this, and I have been using olive oil for very many years. We had some Greek friends, and they bought case lots of 2 liter cans and we divvied them up. In the past i was only concerned with very fresh fruity taste and green color.

I have never noticed this burn before, but I have never just knocked back olive oil straight up before either. What I am describing I believe is too much acidity, and in doing a bit of reading it seems that this is frequently a flaw in some extra virgin oils.

I bought some California Olive Ranch Arbosana from Amazon today. I did call an oil bar in the public market, but wow, their stuff is like $5 for 50 ml, and if my head is working tonight after my Muscadet, that seems like $100/liter. I would use about 50 ml/day for the sipping, and I can't afford $150/month. Several people suggested other oils than EVOO, and they might be great, but I am sticking with the oil Penelope served to Odysseus when he got home from his trip.

I want to stay with California, because the other places I trust, Germany and Sweden and Holland, don't have olives.

I will use California Olive Ranch "for everyday use" oil for everything other than sipping

Ha

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha I did call an oil bar in the public market, but wow, their stuff is like $5 for 50 ml, and if my head is working tonight after my Muscadet, that seems like $100/liter.

That's crazy talk. Or maybe Seattle pricing. I got 8 oz. for about $7. That's about $28/liter. Now that I calculate it out, that's still not cheap, but is cheaper than a decent bourbon. At one shot/day it would be affordable, maybe. A buck a day?

[NW-Bound]

At $5 for 50 ml, they must be squeezing the olives individually. By hand.

It may be cheaper than good booze and healthier for you too, but does it have the same mental therapeutic effect?

In this dropping market, perhaps one should take a shot of EVOO in the morning before the market open, and a shot of his favorite booze at the market close.

[UtahSkier]

I mentioned the boutique olive oil shops... there appears to be 2 kinds.


I get my premium oil from a shop like this;
Extra Virgin Olive Oil


$18.00 for a 12 oz bottle.


While shopping at the mall the other day, my wife discovered a new shop for olive oil that sells the oil in 100ml portions. Very expensive. We had split up and she called me on the phone to check out this new store.


By the time I got there, she was taste testing... not the oils, but the scotch... also sold in 100 ml portions. I sampled a few of the scotches and then felt compelled to buy something. Ended up with a $140 750ml bottle of scotch.


Definitely not compatible with an early retirement strategy.

[tmm99]

Hi Ha,

I used to use this olive oil - and that was when I was so into cooking Italian dishes. (Way over 10 years ago.)

Healthy Fats & Oils | Bariani Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This oil is endorsed by Weston Price Foundation which advocates clean, traditional, healthy fats, among other things.

Anyway, due to cost, I used to use this just for salads and things that didn't require much heating. I remember each bottle showing the harvest month/year and some were marked "new harvest" (and those I remember to be more bitter.) Either way, I remember Bariani to have a very strong taste.

Now that this olive oil topic came up and having found out that a lot of olive oil brands are fake, I am reconsidering getting some high quality olive oil again, so thank you for that

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Audrey, that is kind of an eye opener. Here is what Whole Foods says now about its sources: Product FAQs: Olive Oil | Whole Foods Market Hopefully Whole Foods has got their act together. I guess without me setting up a lab, I'll have to trust some source.

Yes, once Whole Food's attention was brought to this matter I'm certain they jumped right on it to correct the situation - that's the kind of company they are. I also think it's interesting that Costco, which had already been selling the best value extra virgin OO by far, already had their act together. I think this means that Costco is very particular with what products they supply under the Kirkland brand.

[ArkTinkerer]

I like the darker olive oil flavor myself.

If you are going to drink them straight you might look at someplace like EVIL-O oils and vinegars where they infuse flavors into them. Some really interesting flavors.

[swakyaby]

I regularly purchase Costco's organic extra virgin olive oil (which comes from Italy). I always liked the taste. This year, Costco switched suppliers, saying that the cost of OO from Italy has gone way up, so now their Kirkland brand OO is from Greece. I can taste the difference. It's not bad, but I like the taste of Italy's OO better.

[timo2]

Just saw this article: "For the sake of science and my book I was trying to emulate the diets of Cretan fishermen from the 1960s, who reportedly had a glass of olive oil for breakfast before a hard day of fishing or goat herding. These high intakes of oil had been suggested as a cause of their remarkable longevity, despite the large amounts of saturated fat they consumed as a result"

A glass of olive oil every day—the Mediterranean way to live longer - Quartz

[razztazz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by timo2 Just saw this article: "For the sake of science and my book I was trying to emulate the diets of Cretan fishermen from the 1960s, who reportedly had a glass of olive oil for breakfast before a hard day of fishing or goat herding. These high intakes of oil had been suggested as a cause of their remarkable longevity, despite the large amounts of saturated fat they consumed as a result" A glass of olive oil every day—the Mediterranean way to live longer - Quartz

While I consume tons of EVOO that article sounded like a sales pitch. like cheerios prevents heart attacks. Those 13 liters per years Europeans were consuming? A whopping 1.2 ounces per day. An insignificant amount. Enough to get your fingers greasy. I am already gallons ahead of that as are most people anyway.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by timo2 Just saw this article: "For the sake of science and my book I was trying to emulate the diets of Cretan fishermen from the 1960s, who reportedly had a glass of olive oil for breakfast before a hard day of fishing or goat herding. These high intakes of oil had been suggested as a cause of their remarkable longevity, despite the large amounts of saturated fat they consumed as a result" A glass of olive oil every day—the Mediterranean way to live longer - Quartz

Actually, although olive oil has some saturated fat, this is a small portion of the fats found in olive oil. In 15 ml are 14 gm of total fat, and only 2 gm of saturated fat.

Drinking olive oil is not the world's easiest thing to do. I think I may use the same amount of oil, but on raw vegetables of some sort. I tried jicama strips today, with olive oil and fresh lime juice. This was good.

Ha