For this weeks class, my classmates and I attended an olive oil tasting. When we arrived, we were given green and black olives to snack on as well as three plastic cups labeled one, two and three. Each cup was filled with a different olive oil, one was a cheap olive oil from the grocery store, one was an olive oil of decent quality, and one was a high quality, expensive olive oil.
Olive oil can be evaluated using an international olive oil council profile sheet. The sheet contains categories for defects in the olive oil such as fusty, musty, winey, muddy metallic and rancid, as well as positive attributes such as fruity, bitter and pungent. Olive oil #1 had the most overall positive attributes and the least negative, and was the most expensive one. Olive oil #3 had the most negative attributes and the least positive, and was the cheapest one. My favorite olive oil was definitely number 1, but considering the enormous price difference in the oils I’ll probably still stick with number 3.
Linked below is a case study evaluating the flavor profiles of monovarietal virgin olive oils:
Link: https://www.ocl-journal.org/articles/ocl/full_html/2017/05/ocl160026/ocl160026.html
