When Life Gives You Olives…

I promised some tasting notes a few weeks ago, but have just now had the time to actually go back and taste the oil. So, olive oil nerds, here you go:

On the nose this release of Verde has notes of artichoke, green grass, ripe olives and a faint hint of olive flower.

In the mouth, you’ll notice the smooth taste of ripe olives, green apple, white pepper and leafy green, herbaceous notes. There is a mild pungency with very little bitterness.

In a few words, this is a classic smooth Spanish style olive oil. Very easy to use, not “in your face,” and very versatile.

As a side note, this is the first oil that we have produced that contains our new varieties, Picual, Hojiblanca and Arbequina along with the classic Mission and Manzanillo.

Enjoy!

I just thought that I’d create a link to a recent blog post over at SMARTLIFEWAYS. It contains some great links and an excellent view of farmers’ markets from a consumer/visitor point of view.

SmartLifeways Blog

Enjoy!

This is the first installment of several in a new series of blogs called, It’s a Matter of Taste. In this series, I’ll attempt to clarify how you, as a consumer, can approach olive oils and evaluate them. I’ll also do my best to explain some common myths and misconceptions regarding olive oils. If you have questions along the way, send them to me and I’ll work the answers into a future post.

Search With Confidence

Before one can begin the journey along the path to olive oil addiction, one must learn to differentiate between a good oil and a bad oil. Believe it or not, many people prefer rancid Bertolli olive oil over a high-quality olive oil in their first blind tasting (including your humble narrator). This is because these rancid, horrible flavors are what we, as consumers, have come to expect from olive oils. These flavors are familiar to us. It’s no wonder that many people simply say, “Oh, I don’t like olive oil.” When this series concludes, we hope that you’ll be well-equipped with the knowledge you need to go out to your favorite market, or better yet to an olive oil producer, and choose with confidence an EVOO that you’ll love.

Magic Formula

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula or even a simple test to determine the best olive oil. Although olive oil has been consumed for millennia, we have no truly scientific way to evaluate an oil for quality or flavor. It is a purely personal experience. There are a battery of chemical tests that can be used to predict the shelf life of olive oils, to gauge their worthiness to be called extra virgin and to determine if the olive oil is adulterated with other oils (as discussed in an earlier post). It is a priority for Sylverleaf to always provide the results of the chemical analysis of our olive oils in the Harvest Records section of our website. Other than these chemical tests, which very few olive oil producers make available to the consumer, how does one attempt to choose an olive oil with any certainty as to the quality? It’s simple, consult with your nose and mouth! I’ll tackle these two senses in the next couple of posts. One thing that I can tell you now: The label on the bottle is not going to help you.

Myth #1

Myths and misinformation abound in the industry; here in the US and abroad. One of the first bits of of misinformation comes on the label that sits on each handsome bottle. In the US, the labeling law for olive oil was written in the 1940s, when the terms extra virgin, virgin, and pure were not even in use! So, as of right now, 2009, there is no legal definition for these terms in US law!

An unscrupulous olive oil producer can simply combine a small portion of decent extra virgin olive oil with a large portion of any other oil and still call it extra virgin. Legally.

A producer can also take an old olive oil, with all the terrible flavors that old oil imparts, and run that oil through carbon filters. This filtering removes most all of the color, flavor and smell from the olive oil. Then, the producer can add some EVOO back into the colorless, flavorless and odorless liquid, then call it extra virgin. Again, legally.

I hope that you’ll read the two previous paragraphs again and let that information sink in.

These myths do, however, have one upside. They enable a consumer to walk into a supermarket and buy a gallon of “extra virgin olive oil” for $10. The product on the shelf is not really olive oil, much less an extra virgin olive oil. I’m not trying to say that all olive oils on the supermarket shelves are out to deceive the consumer. There are some large olive oil producers that make a fine product. I hope to give you the information that you will need to find those olive oils as this series unfolds. So, come back for the next installment, where I tackle an olive oil’s color. You’re going to be surprised.

I recently posted a link to our most recent chemical analysis for our the Sylverleaf Estate and Foothills Blend extra virgin olive oils. I have since received a few queries, asking “What?!” So, to soothe your inner EVOO nerd, here is what’s in a chemical analysis:

Free Fatty Acid (FFA):

From the IOOC (International Olive Oil Council, Madrid, Spain): “This is a crude indicator of the quality of the fruit and handling procedures prior to milling. It is a measurement of hydrolytic breakdown of the fatty acid chains from triglycerides into diglycerides and monoglycerides, liberating free fatty acids. It is usually expressed as percent (%) free fatty acids on the basis of the oleic acid, because that is the predominant fatty acid in olive oil.”

What it means: This is a measure of the amount of oleic acid present in each sample. Oleic acid is a compound that makes olive oil, well, olive oil.  The lower this number, the better.  The international standard for FFA is that it must be ≤ 0.8%.

Being at 0.2% and 0.4% FFA, both of our olive oils are well within the standard.

Peroxide (PPV):

From the IOOC: “This is a crude indicator of the amount of primary oxidation that has occurred, forming peroxide compounds within the oil. A high value indicates that the olives, or paste, was likely handled improperly, the oil could be defective, and the oil might not keep well. The Peroxide Value is a measure of the active oxygen content.

What it means: This is the level of active oxygen, suspended in the olive oil. Generally speaking, the higher the number, the shorter the shelf life. Most any extra virgin olive oil, if stored properly, will last for 12-16 months in the bottle. See our website for our storage recommendations. The international standard for PPV is that it must be ≤ 20.

The PPV values we see this year are higher than we normally have, and I’m working out how that’s possible.  The only rational idea that I have is that we tested the oils much later this year than in years past…  That being said, values of 12 and 16 are just fine.

UV Light Absorbency:

From the IOOC: “This is a more delicate indicator of oxidation, especially in oils that have been heated in the refining process. It measures the quantity of certain oxidized compounds that resonate at wavelengths of 232 and 270 nanometers (nm) in the ultraviolet spectrum in a spectrophotometer. Delta (Δ) K detects oil treatments with color removing substances and the presence of refined or pomace oil by measuring the difference between absorbance at 270 nm and 266 nm – 274 nm.

What it means: An unscrupulous olive oil maker can blend an olive oil with other oils (walnut, safflower, etc.) and achieve acceptable results for the FFA and PPV tests (and be within current US law). These UV Absorbency tests check for the presense of other, lower-grade oils. Fail these tests and you’re a cheater.  The higher these numbers are, over the standard, the lower the grade of oil.

UV232: The standard is a value ≤ 2.5. We’re all good, with results of 2.046 and 2.169.

UV270: The standard here is a value ≤ 0.22. We’re sitting at 0.125 and 0.133.

Delta K: To be extra virgin, the olive oil must test ≤ 0.01. We tested out at 0.00 and 0.012.

So, there you have it. Dare any other olive oil producer to give you these numbers every year. Geek out!

Well, it seems that a post blog post has now come full circle. In this blog post I commented on a person who was hostile to her neighbors “farming” their city lots and yards. Now, according to Mother Jones, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is looking for ways to bring farming to the City By the Bay.

I say that this is an AWESOME development and hope that the city can pull it off. Not only will it allow for city folks to get some much needed, fresh produce, it will provide that produce at a time of great need.

America’s most progressive city at work!

Well, it’s that magical time of year right now. This morning, while doing the daily chores, I noticed that there was the faintest of smells wafting through the air. It took only a few moments time to search through the nearest olive tree and what did I find? The first olive blossoms have opened on the olive trees here at Sylverleaf. Thus, the cycle begins anew. Flowers to fruit to olive oil!

I’m searching for the words to describe the faint, sweet smell of an olive flower, but those words won’t come… An olive flower smells exactly like an olive flower. That’s the best that I can do.

Last night, we ate 5(!) different olive oils with our simple meal of pasta with red sauce. We used our Foothills Blend for sauteing the onions and garlic, then an Arbequina oil as a finisher for the sauce, towards the end of the simmering. Lastly, I put an Ascolano oil on one piece of garlic bread and an Arbequina/Arbosana blend on another piece of garlic bread. The boss topped her pasta with a Mission/Manzanillo blend.

Wow. (Lots of fun too).  Each oil lent its’ own flavor to the meal and the combination was out of this world.

You might be thinking, “why all those different oils?” Well, these are the left-overs from our blending and tasting duties. They are sitting around the kitchen, begging to be used. It’s great to sample them, one at a time, but when they all come together.  Wow. Sometimes, it pays to be an olive oil maker!

For the pasta sauce recipe, take a look at our website: Doug’s Pasta Sauce

Although this post has very little to do with olive oil, it does concern farmers and food.

As I sat on a plane to Hong Kong, I came across a few articles in the Wall Street Journal that really got me thinking.  One article was the story of a man who is talking his neighbors into planting gardens of vegetables in place of their lawns. I think that the idea is outstanding on a number of levels.  First, these people are getting produce in return for letting go of their lawns.  Second, the amount of water and fertilizer needed for the lawn is greatly reduced. Third (I could go on), it really builds a connection in people with the food that they consume.

But, there is a problem.  Some of the neighbors dislike the idea very strongly and are now suing this urban farmer. They contend that he is reducing their property values by getting people to convert their perfectly trimmed lawns to “ugly” gardens.  Wow. The “bad” neighbors are taking their complaint to the courts, so we’ll see how it turns out.

There are times when one can have hope in the human race and there are times when one simply cannot…