Olive Oil of the World

Which Olive Oil is Best?

This question is posed to me every day by consumers that come to my green market stand. Other times consumers stop by and espouse that olive oil from a certain country is the best and make a decision based on a preconceived idea or past experience.  To say that a particular oil from one country or a specific region within a country is better than another is not true. There is excellent and terrible  olive oil produced in all of the 26 olive oil producing countries in the world.  He who markets best will try to convince the consumer otherwise and will often succeed, but olive varieties are as diverse as grapes and production methods vary as well.  Ultimately the BEST olive oil depends on the individual. The idea is to find excellent ones and choose what one considers to be the best of them. That starts with finding REAL Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

In its purest form, first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil delivers unsurpassed flavor to the palette and indisputable health benefits to the body. Many people are confused about the terms  “ first cold pressed” and “extra virgin.” The United States  does not have labeling requirements specific to olive oil like it does other food products so there is great confusion as to what these 2 terms actually mean.  Put simply, the terms are synonymous. Extra virgin olive oil is always the first cold pressing.

Some producers are still using old methods with grinding stones and pressing mats that expose the olives to oxygen.  Most,  however, have embraced the newer technologies that crush and press the olives in enclosed stainless steel machines that keep the oxygen out. Professionals everywhere agree that exposure to oxygen alters the quality of olive oil.  Knowing the origin of olive oil from the farmer to the olive pressing mill, the variety of olive and whether or not it is indigenous to where it is cultivated, whether the olive oil is a single variety or a blend and how it ultimately tastes are all part of the subjective nature of olive oil.

My father, a first generation American whose parents came from near Naples Italy prefers a grassy tasting olive oil produced from the Sevillano olive that is cultivated in Modesto, California.  My sister prefers the nutty Souri olive oils that come from the Middle East.  I prefer the highly pungent tasting olive oils that come from the Italian regions of Umbria and Marche, and Sicily as well as Cataluna in Northern Spain.  Each of these areas has a specific native olive that delights my palette in a different way.  From Cataluna Spain there is the rich and fruity  Rojal , from Umbria there is the Dolce Agogia olive that delivers a smooth finish,  from Marche it’s the Carboncella olive that adds a strong pepper finish, from Sicily it’s the Nocellera del Belice olive that not only produces a robust deep olive flavor but is also cured to produce phenomenal table olives.

The misconception out there is that extra virgin olive oil is strong in taste. That’s because the larger commercial producers mix together different oils from different countries at the best price possible regarding their bottom line.  And study after study has determined that most of them are not REAL Extra Virgin Olive Oil. They are substandard olive oil that has been deodorized and refined with chemicals and then cut with a bit of extra virgin olive oil to be passed off as real.  That’s what the American consumer can buy in the supermarket or in a large 3 or 5 liter tins from a specialty store.   “Light olive oil” from the supermarket shelves is not only not extra virgin, it is tasteless and colorless because it has been refined with low heating and chemicals to strip out the offensive smell that comes from the olive oil it is made from. There are REAL extra virgin olive oils that are light in taste. It all depends on the olive. From the Fernandina area of Basilicata, the least populated region of Italy, there is the Majatica olive that produces an extra virgin olive oil so light and buttery in taste my son pours it on his popcorn. From Calabria Italy there is the Carolea olive that is rich and buttery in taste.

 It’s important to READ the containers and look for the country of origin. Even if it says “product of Italy or Spain” the olives are probably coming from whoever offers the best price. There is no telling where they come from,  how long they laid at the bottom of the tree or how long they sat in the back of a truck before getting to pressing.  According to the International Olive Oil Council (the US is the only country that does NOT participate in this group), extra virgin olive oil is classified as : 1) it must be from the 1^st pressing,  2) no heat or chemicals can be used to extract the oil from the olives and the temperature may not exceed 82 degrees during the process, and 3) it must contain an acidity level of less than  1% (.08%). It is almost impossible to produce an olive oil with less than 1% acidity if it the olives are not pressed within 24 hours of harvesting without chemically refining the oil.

“The greener the better” is yet another fallacy.  The color of olive oil varies simply due to the amount of chlorophyll or carotene in the olive oil. Some varieties, like the Frantoio from Italy and the Koroneki from Greece are supposed to be picked very green and those olive oil oils will naturally have a deep green color. Other varieties like the Ladolia from Turkey and the  Sevillano from California are picked when the olives are riper (a purple black color) and they will contain more carotene and will produce olive oil with a more golden color. Unfortunately there are unscrupulous producers that will press the leaves with the olives to get that deep green color as well. Our eyes are our first sense when it comes to food and can trick us into thinking something should taste good. Whenever there is an olive oil competition the judges are served the oil in cobalt blue glasses so that the appearance plays no part in the judging.

Its important to know and trust your source if you want a true quality product. If your purveyor doesn’t know WHO is making their olive oil you can never be sure what you are purchasing is not adulterated.  Its not enough to know what kind of olive oil it is and the country of origin. As a follower of the Slow Food movement since its inception, knowing the source of my food and the ingredients is the most important thing to me. Purchasing from small producers who care about every aspect of their food product is what I look for as an importer.

Naturally  these  olive oils will certainly be more expensive than those in a supermarket but just because its expensive doesn’t necessarily mean its quality olive oil either. I’ve learned that going to the farms and fostering a relationship with the farmers is the way I can be 100% sure of the olive oil I import. It gives me that direct connection to the land and the olives that makes my experience “local” even if the farms are thousands of miles away.

Forget about what has been marketed to you over the years and beware of bulk products businesses. The best extra virgin olive oil is determined by your palette and your cooking needs.

This article appeared in the Jan 4th 2012 edition of the Palm Beach Post.

A passion for olive oil: Ersilia Moreno goes from accounting to expertise in ancient oils

Olive oil is like wine. Everyone’s palate is different.

Ersilia Moreno’s reinvention started with a single bottle.

It was a tiny, unassuming bottle of dark, shimmering liquid that beckoned Moreno, whispering to her promises of a world just beyond reach. Its contents, a smooth and seductive elixir, caused her to question life as she knew it.

It was 12-year aged balsamic vinegar, and it reminded her of an aged vinegar she had tasted long ago. That one bottle caused Moreno, the practical-minded owner of an accounting practice and mother of two college-age kids, to follow her heart down a new path, one that would end in travel, friendship – and olive oils from around the world.

“I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. I was doing what I was good at and what would feed my family,” says Moreno, who spends winters in Palm Beach Gardens. “Something just clicked and it catapulted me into it.”

She tracked down the vinegar and started selling it, along with four different types of olive oil at the local farmers market in Palm Beach Gardens, just as a hobby. Then in November 2008 she went to Italy to study with an olive oil sommelier. (Yes, they exist, as well as the olive oil police).

The following spring, she went to her first olive oil trade show and the hobby turned into a profession. She began visiting olive oil producers, developing personal relationships and strictly evaluating each olive oil.

One of five daughters in an Italian-American family and a lifelong traveler, Moreno started sampling olive oil at a young age.

“I always had this thing about olive oil. Wherever I would go, I’d want to try the new olive oil,” she says. “Like wine, you have different olives, different soils, different climates.”

She carries 24 different oils, one from each olive-producing country, three from different regions in the United States and also from eight out of the 16 olive oil regions in Italy (though she plans on collecting them all).

“It’s painstaking,” she says. “I’ve been looking for an oil from Puglia for almost three years.”

She deals only with truly small producers, many whom have never had their product sold in the United States.

Moreno describes her olive oils as if describing a wine: buttery, nutty, grassy, robust, smooth, full fruit, light fruit, medium fruit. She suggests a sprinkle of a nutty olive oil over hummus, buttery olive oil with fried eggs, fruity for roasting vegetables, light if you dislike the taste but want the health benefits. Once, she had a fruity olive oil drizzled over ice cream (“It made the palate go crazy”).

“Olive oil is like wine. Everyone’s palate is different. That’s why I have very light and buttery and very strong, pungent olive oil. I have olive oil that goes the entire spectrum. And it’s fun, I get to try all of them,” she says.

She seeks the perfect combination of taste and beauty.

“It can’t just be an exceptional olive oil. It can’t just be an exceptional looking olive oil. It has to be presentable and exceptional,” she says.

As her business grows, Moreno plans to start bottling balsamic vinegar herself, and she plans to open a showroom as the Internet business grows every day.

“I love this job,” she says. “I used to make a lot more money as an accountant. But I love this job.”

OLIVE OILS OF THE WORLD

During the season, you can find Ersilia Moreno and her oils at local farmer’s markets – Saturdays at the West Palm Beach GreenMarket and Sundays at the Gardens GreenMarket in Palm Beach Gardens.

Stop by her booth and try some of her bottled goods. She also sells specialty vinegars (including that magical balsamic), Calabrian chili paste, apple-pomegranate olive oil jam and other specialty items.

And if you can’t catch her at a green market, you can always find her olive oils online: visit OliveOilOfTheWorld.com.

ERSILIA’S OLIVE OIL CAKE

Ersilia Moreno says she got the idea for this cake from the At Home with Michael Chiarello cookbook. “I played around with ingredients making about 10 different cakes and then, if I do say so myself, I finally created the best olive oil cake recipe around.”

She enjoys this cake with balsamic-marinated strawberries.

Serves: 12

4 eggs

1 3/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup Oro Verde Lucano (light and buttery) extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups milk

Grated zest of 1 large orange and 1 lemon

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350º.

Prepare a Bundt pan with olive oil and flour.

Beat together the eggs and brown sugar until thick and frothy. Slowly add the olive oil. Then add the orange and lemon zests and continue mixing well.

In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Alternating in 2 batches add ½ of the flour mixture to the egg mixture, then ½ of the milk, mixing until just blended with no lumps. Do not over mix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Loosen the sides with a knife and invert onto a serving plate. Dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar.

Here is the original article : http://www.pbpulse.com/dining/2012/01/04/a-passion-for-olive-oil-ersilia-moreno-left-a-successful-accounting-career-to-become-an-expert-in-a/