Extra virgin olive oil is the main condiment of the Mediterranean diet.
A must in Italian cuisine, but how do you recognize a good Extra Virgin Olive Oil?
Without resorting to chemical laboratory analysis, we can rely on our taste-olfactory senses.
It is important to know that extra virgin olive oils are not all the same: in fact, there are more than 400 olive cultivars, each with different tastes and flavors, which vary depending on the territory they belong to.
Although the quality of the oil does not depend on its color, it is still necessary to know that a good extra virgin olive oil has green-yellow color tones.
The first step in recognizing a good extra virgin olive oil is to smell its scent, which must be floral and fruity.
It is good practice to warm the tasting glass with your hands before the olfactory analysis: in this way the oil molecules will be more volatile and will facilitate the perception of aromas.
When tasted, however, the oil must have a fresh and herbaceous taste, distinguished by a more or less spicy note depending on the olive harvest period: an oil produced from ripe olives will have softer taste tones.
