In this installment
OLV Olive Oil
Are greener olive oils fruitier in flavor?
What is unfiltered olive oil?
OLV Olive Oil
Though Italy garners most of the acclaim and attention for olive oil, Spain is actually the world’s leading producer of the golden elixir. According to some estimates, Spain produces. As far as reputation goes, the tides are changing. Spain is exporting more estate olive oils than ever before and culinary types are taking notice. Olv Bio is a great example of Spanish prowess. A high quality, hand harvested oil from the Flores Family in the La Mancha region in southern Spain best known as the home of Don Quixote. The Flores family is passionate about producing great oil. When they decided to get their olive groves certified organic, they didn’t stop there: they also helped to inspire 87 of their closest olive-growing neighbors to go organic, too.
This oil is a powerhouse. It might well be the biggest tasting oil we’ve come across in years bigger and bolder than any Tuscan oil on our shelves, the defacto kings of big oils. It’s organic, and organic oils tend to be rustic and bold, but this one really sets the bar above anything else we carry. It’s a blend of Arbequina and Picual olives that has big, bold, slightly sweet flavors making it incredibly useful in the kitchen.
Great for garden greens or a caprese salad of basil, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. Certainly one of the most complex oils we carry and a fantastic ambassador for the quality of Spanish olive oil.
Are greener olive oils fruitier in flavor?
Well, sometimes. Greener oils can be fruitier and fuller flavored. But flavor—not color—is the way to determine which oil you want to buy. In fact, techni cal experts often pour oils into cobalt blue glasses for tasting so that their assessment won’t be thrown off by the appearance of the oil. Not only is color not directly linked to quality, there are actually ways in which unscrupulous producers use color to mislead well-meaning consumers. By adding olive leaves in with the fruit during the crushing, you can obtain a greener oil—the chlorophyll in the leaves adds visual luster but does nothing to boost the flavor. (Worse, it may even help to mask defects in the flavor of the oil.)
What is unfiltered olive oil?
Most olive oils sent to America are filtered oils. The olive oil is run through a series of paper or cotton filters to clarify it and improve its presentation. Unfiltered oils are left in their natural state—cloudier and sometimes nearly opaque from the natural particles of olive sediment. You won’t be surprised to know though that oil producers aren’t in agreement on the benefits of filtering or not filtering.
Those who don’t, insist that their oil is more flavorful, that they are leaving in some of the essential goodness which others remove for fear that consumers can’t cope with the cloudiness of an unfiltered product. Ed Behr, whose taste I trust a great deal, wrote in The Art of Eating (#41), that, “. . . for flavor, olive oil is better left unfiltered. Good olive oil remains cloudy for a long time, one proof that it is good.”
Those who do filter, on the other hand, argue exactly the opposite. Giuseppe Grappolini, whose taste I also trust, gets downright argumentative about this subject. He argues adamantly that the sediment does nothing for the oil, and that those who fail to filter are simply trying to sell something (the sediment) to the consumer that would otherwise be disposed of.
I lean toward unfiltered oils. I like the thicker mouth feel, which reminds me of drinking coffee brewed in a French plunger pot. Makes me think of the countryside. Makes me want to go out in a Tuscan field on a cold November day and pour it onto toasted country bread. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. In the end, of course, it’s really your call. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that when you get equally passionate people arguing opposite sides of a culinary issue, you probably won’t go wrong with either option. Regardless, remember the decision to filter or not to filter will never raise an oil beyond the level of quality it was before it arrived at the filter.