The Art of Olive Oil

Over the last month, I have quickly learned how big of a deal olive oil is to the people of Priego de Cordoba.  They truly love it here and will defend it until the day they die.  I even received a video on olive oil when I visited the tourism office for a map of the town.  And this past week, I taught the Spanish version of the food pyramid to my students and it advises that you need to eat Olive Oil every day.  To be fair, it is super good.  And I do find myself adding it my meals on a daily basis.  So maybe this is the secret to why all of the Spanish women are so beautiful?? 

This past week, I spent a lovely evening with my friend Sara who works in the Olive Oil industry.  She gave me a lesson on the ins and outs of Olive Oil that I found rather interesting and wanted to share on my blog.

To begin with, you have three types of Olive Oil:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Virgin Olive Oil
• Olive Oil

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the best of the best.  This oil is made from the olives that are picked from the trees.  The olives are then sent to the factory and are naturally changed into oil.  This olive oil has no negative affects; only positive ones.  It helps your skin, it is good for digestion, it helps with wrinkles, etc.  If you were to taste test the olive oil, you will be able to taste sweet on the tip of your tongue, bitter as it travels towards the back of your tongue, and spicy as it hits your throat.  It also smells like a mix of fresh tomatoes, apples, and other fruits and vegetables.  I had my first olive oil taste testing session in Sara's kitchen, and I can vouch for all of the above.  (I even started choking when the spicy part kicked in!) 

Virgin Olive Oil is made from the olives that are picked up from the ground.  They are a little bit more ripe than the ones from the tree (which is why they fell off in the first place), but they are still good.  This olive oil is very good for you as well.  It has all of the same attributes as Extra Olive Oil except the taste and smell is less flavorful. 

Plain jane Olive Oil is terrible for you.  Back in the day, (when there was no electricity) they used a specific olive oil to light the street lamps.  This oil comes from a different olive than the ones I mentioned above.  After electricity was invented, they had all of this leftover oil and needed to get rid of it.  Therefore, they decided to chemically alter it to turn it into an edible substance.  Today, this olive oil is completely "fake."  This oil is actually black in color unlike its sister oils mentioned above.  Since this is a very unattractive feature with food, they add chemicals to turn it white.  This oil also lacks the tastes and smells that are normally associated with good olive oil.  To fix all of these issues, they add a few drops of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to add some color and flavor.  While this may be the cheapest route for olive oil, it is by no means the healthiest. 

When buying Olive Oil (especially in the U.S.), one needs to make sure to read the label of the bottle.  Like most food in the U.S., the fine print labels are the only true way to find out what is in the food.  (Thank you American manufacturers for your wonderful plays on words.)  A bottle could say "Extra Virgin Olive Oil," but not actually be that type.  The back of the label should explain about the oil itself (what it tastes like/smells like/where it is from/etc).  One also needs to avoid the plastic bottles of oil.  Olive oil has a shelf life of about six months.  However, when it is stored in a plastic container, its shelf life is much shorter due to light penetrating through the bottle.  (When olive oil goes bad... yuck.)  It is best to buy the oil in a glass bottle, and even better to buy it in a dark, glass bottle.  This way, the light cannot filter through the dark color or the glass.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my run down on olive oil.  (Sara if you are reading this, and I got any of the information wrong, please inform me!)  I now dare all of my American readers to find their nearest bottle of olive oil and read the label.  And next time you buy a brand new bottle, taste test it and smell it!  Bon Apetit!