I love to host olive oil tastings for people not familiar with California olive oil. It’s wonderful to watch people’s expressions as they taste different styles of oils and realize that olive oil can vary as much as different varieties of wine or coffee. Many of these first-timers also appreciate how bad the olive oil they’ve previously been using tastes.
Are you new to California olive oil? Then here’s four facts about California olive oil you ought to know:
1) Not all olive oil is extra-virgin olive oil–even if it’s labeled ‘extra virgin.’ Unfortunately, this is a consequence of lax labeling laws in the United States. Basically, with the exception of olive oil sold in California, Connecticut, New York, and Oregon, any olive oil can be sold as ’extra virgin’ in the U.S., even if it’s not. This fraud is especially true of imported olive oils. Buyer beware!
2) Extra virgin olive oil is high quality oil. True extra virgin olive oil is cold-pressed. That means it is processed without chemicals or heat. It must also meet acidity requirements and undergo taste-testing by a certified tasting panel to rule-out taste defects.
3) True extra virgin olive oil is expensive to produce and buy. Is it any wonder that it’s big business for olive oil producers to sell inferior oils with fraudulent labeling?
4) California olive oil is an emerging industry. I like to compare it to the California wine industry forty years ago. I predict in the next ten years more and more consumers will be buying our high quality olive oil as production and marketing increases. The numbers bear this out. Over 12,000 acres of super high-density olives (the main commercial production method) have been planted since 1999. That’s a lot of olives!
Of course, there’s so much more to understanding olive oil, and I’ll tackle those topics in a later post. But for now, try some California olive oil. I think you’ll be impressed!
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