Choosing the Best Olive Oil

Most consumers, myself included, often use products we find on our supermarket shelves without really knowing too much about them. lately I have been a bit more fussy and now look into the inner workings of food I include in my every day diet.

Such is the case with olive oil. I was amazed at how much there was to learn about olive oil and how important it is to understand what the name of the label is telling you.

First of all, some basic facts about the making of olive oil.

Only green olives are used for olive oil. The olives will result in different flavored oils depending on the regions they grow in. Much like wine the final product can be affected by growing location and weather. For instance, high quality olive oil is now grown in Australia and New Zealand, but because of the location in the Southern Hemisphere may have a different flavor from traditional growing areas like Italy.

Also, and this really blew me away. The optimum life of olive oil(if you want it in its prime)is only 3 months from the pressing date. Yet the date on the bottle is most likely the bottling date and not the pressing date. So as a result, you could be buying an olive oil off the shelf that is over a year old and surely not in its prime for flavor.

HANDLING:

Ultimately, you are between a rock and a hard place when trying to properly store olive oil. You really should not keep it at room temperature as this will eventually compromise the flavor, and you should not keep it in the refrigerator, because it will tend to want to solidify and begin to turn "smoky." However, it will return to its clear, liquid state when brought out into room temperature once again. Also, a dark colored glass bottle is much better than clear.

The "best" place for olive oil storage would be something similar to a cellar. Or simply, warmer than a refrigerator, but cooler than room temperature.

BEST TO THE WORST:

It seems the best choices are "extra virgin olive oil" followed by "virgin olive oil."

Extra Virgin olive oil for instance, has less than 1% acidity. Normally it comes from the "first press" or "cold press" which seems to be two terms that mean about the same thing or at least, are interchangeable. In a nutshell, the first press is done by hand and hot water is sometimes added to the olive pulp to increase the flow of oil.

From there you will find bottles that simply say "pure olive oil." This oil is most likely from the second pressing and should be your choice for cooking as it has a higher tolerance to heat as compared to the virgin olive oils. Keep that expensive virgin oil for your salads etc.

From what I've discovered, the labels to avoid when olive oil shopping will read..

--refined olive oil

--olive pomace oil

--light and extra light olive oil

The light oils appear to be mixtures of refined oils that include the lowest quality oils. The only reason they are suitable for consumption by people is because they are refined first.

It seems like a good plan to just avoid the above three oils completely and go with virgin and extra virgin oils for highest quality, and pure "pure olive oil" for cooking.

Also, if you are in search of freshness, try and find a bottle that states the actual "pressing date." Remember, olive oil is at its peak for only three months if you are looking for the absolute best.

To tell you the truth, I even wonder if it is possible to find olive oil less than 3 months old in many retail outlets in North America. I plan to go on a search in my area and see what is available now that I am armed with more knowledge on the product.

I have a feeling if I do find an oil this fresh, I can expect to pay top dollar for it.

Now at least I think I understand why there is such a wide range of prices in the olive oil products. This is a great example of getting what you pay for.