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It’s true … It would certainly be useful for all of us to have a mirror of desires that could tell us whether the purchase we are about to make will be a success or not.
Just try to imagine the scene … you are in front of a shelf full of what apparently seems to be all good extra virgin olive oil, but the dilemma arises: which one to choose?
We are always attracted to the thousand details that surround us, whether it is the colored label, the price to think about or simply the name of the product; in fact, we have reached a point where even choosing which extra virgin olive oil to bring home turns out to be a rather difficult mission. So reciting the usual spiel “Mirror, mirror of my desires …” and immediately having the answers to the questions that haunt us most would be a luxury.
But alas, we do not have this possibility and the choice of the perfect extra virgin olive oil must therefore be based on some key points of the world of olive oil. Also because, it must be admitted, that it is not necessarily true that an oil is enough to be extra virgin to be “good”, indeed each product has its own identity and, in this case, the variables are infinite.
Learning about and getting to know a good extra virgin olive oil and all its characteristics is a careful art that must be put aside. Just follow short and simple tricks, which will allow all of you to survive that “jungle” that is commercial life, taking full advantage of the benefits of the classic extra virgin olive oil, an ally of taste and health.
Follow with us all the steps on “How to recognize extra virgin olive oil” or more simply, “How to recognize good oil”:
1. Let’s start from the outside first, we will then get to the heart of the situation.
And what’s more “external” than the package? There are some musts that you need to follow and to be careful of when it comes to recognizing a quality olive oil. We all know that extra virgin olive oil needs to be stored in the dark and in containers that are able to protect it from light, in order to prevent it from causing alterations and / or changes to our EVO oil. And here is the first trick … to recognize a valid product it is necessary to focus on stainless steel containers or dark glass bottles, with hermetic closure and possibly anti-topping cap. If you happen to find a bottle of transparent extra virgin olive oil, know that the producer in that case will have wanted to play more in favor of marketing, at the expense of the preservation of his product.
2. Let’s repeat it together: “If I want to know how to recognize extra virgin olive oil, I have to” waste “two minutes reading the label”. And beware, our most dispassionate advice is to adopt this habit even when you leave the sphere of the product such as EVO oil, that is … spending those minutes reading the label of any product can and will make a difference.
Then take notes and find out if all this information is present on the label of the extra virgin olive oil bottle that you bring to the table every day: sales denomination “Extra Virgin Olive Oil”, information from the oil category “Category superior obtained directly from olives and with mechanical procedures “, designation of origin of the product” Extra virgin olive oil obtained in Italy from olives harvested in Italy “followed by the name of the producer, the batch to which they belong, the year of harvesting of the olives and the nutritional table. If you have realized that your oil has these characteristics on its label well then … you have hit the mark!
3. To solve the dilemma of “How to recognize a quality olive oil” it is good practice to have an eye on the origin of the olives and the certification of that particular EVO oil.
In fact, PDO or PGI or organic products are subjected to periodic checks and inspections, following specific production regulations. Discovering on your bottle of extra virgin olive oil the presence of the denomination stamps or the symbol of organic oil can only be an additional indicator of the quality of the oil.
A brief note also for Monocultivar oils, obtained from a single variety of olives, an element that can indicate and raise the quality of extra virgin olive oil.
4. So we come to the sore point for most consumers … that is the price and in the case of olive oil, the price per liter.
Let it be clear that too low prices are in most cases synonymous with poor quality. If you are looking for a pure and well made extra virgin olive oil, be wary when the price tag shows a figure of less than 8 euros. A very variable figure that varies considerably, for example, they have a conformation of the territory that often does not allow the mechanical harvest of olives and also simply from region to region or from country to country. Liguria or Lake Garda produce a lower quantity of extra virgin olive oil than other regions, therefore having higher than average prices.
When you make a specific thought you must always look at it from all possible sides: buying a cheap and poor quality oil, not only leads to ruin the taste of the food we bring to the table every day, but above all, it is not even healthy. We must therefore stop for a moment and think about whether we should buy a 3 euro per liter EVO oil, abuse it in use because it knows nothing or spend a little more to have a product that combines flavor and health?
5. We can certainly fill our heads with many small tricks on how to knowingly recognize the correct extra virgin olive oil but the final verdict will always have only one: tasting. A careful sensory analysis is what it takes … proof that our olive oil is free from aromatic defects. It should be clear that extra virgin olive oil must not have any defects from proper production. When tasting, you don’t need to have great titles or special courses behind you to understand if an oil has the minimum requirements to be of quality. If by the time you have removed the cap and are inebriated by that vegetable scent, of freshly cut grass and ripe olive, then you will be ALMOST sure that you have been able to recognize the classic good oil. To be 100% sure you say? Well, let’s move on to the taste … a quality extra virgin has more or less accentuated notes, a harmony between its spiciness and its bitterness, peculiarities on which, in the course of history, false myths have been created that need to be debunked . Characteristics such as spicy and loved are elements that prove the quality of EVO oil, not the other way around. You need to have the foresight to recognize them when tasting them and be happy and proud to have met them during your sensory analysis.
Finally, quality extra virgin olive oil leaves a dry and clean mouth, not the mellow and greasy sensation typical of poor oils.
After sharing our personal guide with you on how to recognize good oil and not run into common mistakes, we have one last little piece of advice to give you.
If you don’t want to worry about analyzing a simple bottle of extra virgin olive oil so deeply and you decide to trust it, then our Bonamini products respond and are able to perfectly satisfy all the steps listed above.
PDO/Igp, organic oil, monovarital oil, all the information about olives and production out in the sunlight and if at this point, you are still not convinced … just proceed with the tasting to be sure that you have made the right choice, the definitive one!
