Olive Oil Tasting

A way (useful although not official) to assess olive oil quality?

Conventional statements:

1. Chemical analysis and sensory assessment are essential for defining the oil

quality profile.

2. Only experts (qualified tasters or panel leaders) are the only able to reliably

conduct organoleptic assessment of virgin olive oil.

3. The assessment carried out by non trained and monitored olive oil tasters is not

relevant.

4. Oil tasting shall take place in a test room installed and equipped according to

the (IOOC) standards.

Although quality competition awards might help penetrate new markets, in most cases, consumers taste simply differs from the expert opinion.

Producer interest is to meet consumers requirements rather than to satisfy trained and monitored tasters.

While quality assessment aims at maximum standardisation, in different Regions, consumers appreciate product with different sensory profiles.

Modern grove management allows to press one variety at the time and obtain

monovarietal oil or deciding blending ratios among cultivars.

Due to the progressive ripening of olives, oil traits change a lot during the harvest

season.

By maintaining oil in stocking batches related to variety or time of harvest (stage of ripening) it is possible to blend different kinds of oils and reach specific flavor or contain

natural flavor fluctuation due to oil aging.

Oils can then be blended according to the specific requirements of the market to supply

or to offer a wider range of products. Spicy or less strong oils can interest different

markets or different uses (classic matches are fish dishes with delicate oils or vegetable

soups with strong flavors).

At the beginning of the season, the oil is bitter and spicy to get milder with the olive

ripening or the oil aging.

During pressing season, oil testing might highlight the need to change processing

parameters to adjust molaxing duration or temperature. Identifying some traits linked to

variety can also provide a guide for new plantation.

The Appearance.

While being totally negligible in standard tasting, appearance heavily contributes to

expectation and perception. Consumer from different Regions attribute different values

to colour and opacity.

Although, in order to preserve its quality, high end oils are bottled in opaque containers,

green is associated with fresh, un-adulterated and flagrant taste. Recalling such colour on

the exterior increases the consumer expectation towards these characteristics.

As for the clearness, the largest part of oil intended to export are filtered and clear.

Offer of non filtered oil is restricted to niche demand and go with information about

possible presence of sediments that are a natural occurrence not meaning any detriment

to the product or health hazard.

Chemical Analysis.

Chemical inspections should be reserved to oils from uncertain origin. It is misleading to

use the results as a quality evidence. In facts, deviated chemical traits leads to deviated

taste but the opposite does not necessarily occurs and the analysis a regular chemical

profile might be associated to a disgusting oil.

As for basic indicators as acidity and nr. of peroxides, the official limits are far too wide

from discriminating low quality products.

Tasting.

Official tasting is a complex practice that aims at discriminating and grading the main

flavours and bouquet components. Beyond the four primary taste (sweet, salty, acid,

bitter), there is a number of other attributes to be investigated and the resulting details

organised in graphics.

Sensitivity changes from a person to the others and from morning to afternoon.

All these variable are made even more complex by sensory adaptation which lead sensitivity to progressively decrease taste after taste.

All this activity results in a number of graphics as impressive at least as useless since not

helping to compare one oil to the other and choosing the best one.

A different approach is possible. The way a potential consumer will assess our oil does

not involve to dissect its component but enjoy it as a whole. Two main characteristics are

perceived: flavor intensity and flavor harmony.

Flavor intensity describes the strength flavor is perceived. It is not an exact

indicator and only instruments can measure it with exact numbers.

Flavor harmony describes the overall perception resulting from the interaction of

the different flavor components.

The rest is for academic conventions.

How to proceed

It is better to organize tasting sessions in morning time since smell and taste senses are

sharper. More than one person can participate to the taste session, olive oil experts can

be present but their diplomas will not help. You have some thin plastic cup (coffee style)

and a plastic sheet to wrap them. It is better to avoid paper cup since the material has its

own smell.

-Pour some quantity of oil in them and associate them with the batch code (avoid

smelling markers) and cover them.

- Once all the samples are ready and you can begin, uncover them all and, only by

smelling, set them along a line starting from the more delicate to the most intense. It is

possible to heat the cup within the hands, shake the oil, use any system enhancing the

flavor strength given that the same method is repeated for all the samples.

- It is possible to operate in group or any participant can set up its own sequence and

later agree a common arrangement. At this step, it is possible to taste oils when a ranking

position is in question.

- Values from 1 to 10 can be given so that two oils having a very similar intensity will get the same or a close mark while another more get a more distinguished mark.

- The procedure permits flavor harmony assessment and a second arrangement. Harmony

assessment is mainly based on the absence of bad smell but also consider the balance of

main components.

- The two values I and H (intensity and harmony) marked for any oil permit to arrange

them on two axis graph.

- Having carried out most of trials by only smelling, tasting capacity is preserved and can

be devoted to confirm or correct only the most interesting attributions. Then the

equilibrate presence of the primary taste (sweet, salty, acid, bitter) can also be

considered.

- Then the value to consider is obtained by multiplying IxH.

Therefore sample A in the picture, has the same general value as sample B while sample

D is more interesting although less intense than sample C.

1. Pressing olives when they are still green provides a stock of bio-phenols (bitter and

spicy) and green (chlorophyll) to be used to refresh previous year oil or the oil from over-ripe olives.

2. Oil flavour and taste change with time. There are more oil with more persistent traits than others.

3. Fluidity is an important characteristic. Although expert prefers light oils not leaving any

greasy feeling after swallow, the consumer expect some oily sensation to stay in the mouth.

Sample C

Sample D

Intensity

Harmony

Sample B

Sample A