When Life Gives You Olives…

We might be a little behind the curve, but Sylverleaf is in full-on recycling mode. Unlike a city, there is no curbside pickup out here in the puckerbrush. So, if we want to recycle, we need to store the material somewhere until we have enough to load up in the truck and take it to the recycling center. We simply never made the time for this, nor did we exert the extra effort needed. No longer. So, being newly converted to the wonderful world of recycling EVERYTHING, we thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone that our containers are fully recyclable:

• Olive Oil Bottle
  Our bottles should be sorted into bins with other dark glass containers. It is no longer necessary to remove the labels for recycling (but they are recyclable!). Also, rinsing is not necessary for an empty olive oil bottle.
• Screw Cap
  The screw cap is made of tin, so it can be tossed in with your other light metals.
• Labels
  The labels we use are a Type 5 – PP plastic, commonly called BOPP. Other Type 5 plastics are refrigerated containers, some bags, most bottle tops, some carpets and some food wraps.
• Shipping Box & Inserts
  All of our shipping materials are made from paper pulp and cardboard. We do not use Styrofoam inserts or peanuts in our shipping boxes. Please reuse the heavy-duty single wall boxes or recycle them along with your other thick-stock paper goods.

If you have a creative use of empty Sylverleaf olive oil bottles, we’d like to hear about it.

Since we’re in the middle of blending, I thought that it would be the perfect time to fill you in on how it all happens. We start the blending process by tasting each and every batch of oil that we have. During the tasting, the oil is rated in quite a few categories, these being the most important (see below for definitions of the terms used):

• Check for defects in the oil.
• Rate the fruitiness of each oil and determine whether that fruitiness is from green fruit or ripe fruit.
• Rate the bitterness.
• Rate the pungency.
• Rate the intensity of the oil, both in flavor and aroma.
• Next, check for balance and complexity.
• Finally, we go back and try to pick out individual flavors and aromas, along with mouthfeel and persistence.

After all of the ratings are compiled in a spreadsheet, we look for the oils that really stand out with high ratings. Those oils become the base for the particular blend (Estate, Foothills Blend or end blend).

We then come up with the percentages of each oil to go into the final olive oil and do a test blend of only 5 ounces. That test blend is allowed to settle out and come together over a 24-hour period. After that time is finished, we taste the blend and rate it again, comparing these new ratings with the expected results. We’ll then tweak the blend to add a little flavor here, a little pungency there, some green fruitiness here and some bitterness there.

For the last step, we get out the pumps, pipes and blending vats. All of the oils that we want to use are then combined on a large scale and will soon be ready for bottling. All in all the blending process takes about 4 days to complete. It’s a laborious process (would you want to drink 12-16 ounces of olive oil in the morning–for 2 or 3 days in a row?!) that many other olive oil makers do not follow, but we know it helps to make an extremely reliable and consistent product.

Definitions

Negative Attributes

There are only six major defects that could be present in an olive oil. They are listed below along with a brief explanation of the term. I list the defects first because, if we find them in an oil, it is instantly disqualified from blending. There is no need to go further with that oil, except for soap or lip balm!

1. Fustiness or Muddy Sediment

This is a defect in the handling of the olive oils after milling. This one is the producer’s fault, for sure. Oils with this defect will have a flavor that is exactly like the sediment that settles out of olive oil over time. Since we at Sylverleaf don’t filter our olive oils, we have to pay particular attention to a racking schedule (blog soon to follow on racking) to ensure that this defect doesn’t pop up. If you’ve never smelled olive meat after milling, this one is a little difficult to describe… Basically, it is caused by anaerobic fermentation and has that characteristic flavor and smell.

2. Musty / Humid / Earthy

We don’t see this much in the US, but the oils have a certain “wet” quality. You can almost taste humidity and mold in the oil. This defect is caused by large concentrations of fungi and yeasts on the olives prior to milling. Typically, it is caused by olives sitting at the mill, waiting to be processed (for several days) in wet or humid conditions.

3. Winey / Vinegary / Acidic / Sour

Just like it sounds, you’ll sense an off wine flavor, or a strong flavor of vinegar and sourness. This is caused by aerobic fermentation in the olives or poor cleaning techniques at the mill. If a racking schedule is not closely adhered to, an olive oil producer might see this defect.

4. Metallic

You won’t taste this one very often, but it is a flavor that tastes exactly like metal. It is also due to prolonged exposure to metals (not stainless steel) in the processing or storage of the oil. If you buy oil in a tin container, you know this flavor well.

5. Rancid

This is a perception that many people equate with olive oil. This is because we, in the USA, have been forced to purchase low quality olive oils at the supermarket. Many of these imported and heavily processed oils are thoroughly rancid. It is a flavor that we can instantly recognize. Many times, this defect manifests itself by a distinct flavor of cardboard, wax or Play Doh.

6. Other

This is the most difficult to define! This can be any perception of flavor or aroma or mouthfeel that is just not right. For instance, a strong flavor of wet wood indicates that the olives were injured by frost before harvest. Another good example is the taste of rotten bacon. This flavor is caused by an infestation of the olive fruit fly (Bactrocera oleae (Diptera, Tephritidae)) in an orchard (a very common problem around the world, but easily treated with organic-approved sprays). There are quite a few of these defects that just don’t fit into any other category, so they go here.

Positive Attributes

1. Fruitiness

Fruitiness is just that, how fruity in flavor and aroma is the oil. Is that fruitiness from green fruit (think green grass, artichoke, green olive, green banana, herbs) or from ripe fruit (ripe apple, ripe banana, floral, buttery, nutty or tropical flavors). A good balance of both green and ripe fruit is what we strive for at Sylverleaf.

2. Bitterness

People usually cringe when we talk about bitterness, but it is a vital quality to an olive oil. Olives are bitter, green or ripe, they’re bitter. That bitterness is what makes olive oil so versatile and interesting. Here at Sylverleaf, we shoot for the mid to lower range of bitterness, but it’s always there.

3. Pungency

Pungency is that biting, cough-inducing sensation at the back of your throat when you taste a very fresh olive oil. It is not a strong sensation in a Spanish style olive oil, but if you’ve ever tasted a true Italian oil, it is THE sensation. If you like Verde, then you’re a fan of pungency. The Estate will have a good bit of pungency, but the Foothills Blend won’t have much of it at all.

4. Intensity

The intensity of the oil is a rating of both flavor and aroma. It defines just how much the flavors and smells stand out. Typically, our Verde will have high intensity ratings, the Sylverleaf Estate will have a medium intensity and the Foothills Blend will be medium to medium-low intensity.

5. Balance

This is an attribute that we spend quite a bit of time perfecting. Balance is a judgement of how the oil hits your senses. If an oil is very well balanced, no one flavor or smell will jump out above the rest. Everything will just meld together to give a single snapshot of that oil. If one attribute does jump out at you, like bitterness or maybe green grass smells, then that oil is not balanced (not that this is a negative, but just not as positive).

6. Complexity

Complexity is hard to define, but easy to sense. Basically an oil is complex if one can pull out a wide range of flavors and smells when tasting the oil. In our opinion, the more complex, the better (keeping an eye on balance is the trick!).

7. Mouthfeel

This rating attempts to define how the oil feels in your mouth. Is is waxy in texture? Greasy? Can you feel the oil in your mouth long after you have swallowed it?

8. Persistence

Persistence is a measure of how long the flavors and aromas stay with you after ingesting the olive oil sample. A good oil will be somewhat persistent, but not obnoxious or overwhelming.

I hope that this post helps you to understand the craft of making olive oil a little better. If you have any questions, please send them to me. I do answer all questions!

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.

My summer farmer’s market schedule has just begun winding down. Wednesday night was the last Petaluma market and I can’t believe it’s over already! Seemed like we had just gotten started, and bingo!, that was it!!! I am happy to inform my loyal and wonderful customers, (new and old), that Haus Fortuna, on 2nd Street, Petaluma, will be carrying my Foothills Blend throughout the year! If you haven’t been there yet, you really should. The store is filled with incredible, unique gift ideas and is a pleasure to shop at. Tonight, Friday, Gene and I will be at the Marysville market from 5:00 until 8:30. Come and see us and try our delicious “end blend”. This market is only around for another month, so don’t miss out!

It is bittersweet when these seasonal markets end. I love having the opportunity to meet new customers, visit with familiar faces and share my olive oil with everyone. There is also an interesting bond that is created between fellow vendors. We get attached to each other, out of respect for the lives we have chosen being farmers. I always have interesting stories to tell when I get home and I’m always excited to see what’s been going on around here. But really, there’s NO place like home. This is where I long to be the most. With my dog, my kitty, the ponies and the chickies. The birds, turkeys and the starlit sky. And most of all, my man….What an amazing place to return to and watch my olives grow.