First Thoughts on Oil Tasting
A full explanation of the process of professional oil tasting would fill a large book, but we would like to give you an inkling of the culture that surrounds olive oil, and so propose an initial introduction to the subject.
Small blue glasses, called oil-tasters, or cata aceites, are used for the tasting. They are blue because colour does not affect the characteristics of the oil, but clear glasses may also be used. During the tasting, a small piece of apple or a sip of water is used to clean the palate between sampling two different oils.
There are several stages to the tasting process:
Visual Stage
Although the colour does not influence the organoleptic properties, the oil’s appearance may tell us something about it. It may indicate, for example, that it has been prepared using a traditional process, or that it has been badly filtered. Oils may be clean, murky or cloudy.
Olfactory Stage
First warm the sample glass in your hands and swirl the oil so that it coats the sides, then put your nose into the glass. We may detect positive aromas (fruity, apple, new-mown grass, etc.), or negative ones (vinegary, winey, rancid, dreggish, musty, metallic), that will give us some indication of how the oil will taste.
Tasting Stage
Warm the glass a second time, and take a first sip. Wash the oil around your mouth, as this will enable you to detect all the shades of taste. At the back of the tongue we can detect the bitter taste, at the front of the tongue the sweet taste, and when we swallow it, we will become aware a peppery taste in the throat.
There are numerous positive and negative attributes, although, in the official tastings carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, only three positive and six negative attributes are considered when evaluating the oil.
Balanced or Rounded Flavour
Lastly, we will make an overall evaluation of the oil, depending on the balance of aromas and flavours. If only one flavour or aroma dominates the others, the oil is considered to be unbalanced.
Extra virgin olive oil has a perfect flavour and aroma, or to put it another way, absolutely no defects. Any virgin olive oil in which an aroma or flavour considered a defect, (winey, fusty, rancid, musty, etc.) can be detected even almost imperceptibly, is not extra virgin. The untrained consumer will find it extremely difficult to notice these almost imperceptible defects. This is why the role of professional tasters, and the ‘designation of origin’ system are so important, since they ensure that we are actually buying extra virgin olive oil. |
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