Extra Virgin

Extra Virgin is an international term and refers to the highest quality of olive oil with a free fatty acid content of less than 0.8% (laboratory analyses) and with no off flavours (judged by a tasting panel).

To produce Extra Virgin Olive oil -use healthy fruit and handle with care. Press the olives within 18 -24 hours, using a cold extraction process. Air is the major cause of oxidation (causing rancidity in the oil) and is therefore enemy no.1 to a quality oil

Choose with confidence

The "Member of SA Olive" seal is the consumer's guarantee that the producer complies:

  • 100% locally produced
  • Year of harvest is accurate
  • Has passed SA Olive organoleptic taste test
  • Produced in accordance with SA Olive Codes of Conduct and Practice, guarantees quality based on international standards
  • SA Olive Code of Practice and the Seal guarantees honest and informative labeling

Steps in the tasting of olive oil

Step 1 :Pour olive oil

Take a small wine glass or something similar and pour in about 30 ml of oil. The colour of the oil is almost irrelevant ant can range from a greenish colour to a rich gold.

Step 2 :Heat and swirl

Cup the glass in your hands and cover the top with a open hand, keep your hands there for a while, to heat it up, while swirling. The swirling and warmth of your hand helps to release the aromatic flavours.

Step 3 :Inhale and smell

Bury your nose in the glass and inhale, take in the aroma and inhale. Try to describe what you smell, is it fruity, etc.?See below desirable and undesirable terms for olive oil tasting.

Step 4 :Taste

Take a sib into your mouth, DON'T SWALLOW YET, swirl the oil around in your mouth to cover your tongue and palate. Put your teeth together and suck in air over the oil (as you would do when tasting wine). Experience the silky mouth feel, the aromas / off flavours. Can you recognize something familiar? (Look at list on bottom)

Step 5 :Swallow or spit

Once you have got the mouth feel and the taste for an olive oil, you can swallow it (or spit it out). By swallowing a bit of the oil, you can experience the typical peppery characteristic of olive oil at the back of your throat.

Step 6 :Mouth feel

Be aware of your mouth feel a few seconds after swallowing. Is the oily feeling in your mouth gone? Typically the mouth feel of olive oil becomes watery.

 

Desirable Flavours

Undesirable Flavours

Apple

Bitter -Good in moderation, but not good if overpowering (when unripe olives with little flesh as well as olives that have suffered water stress, are used

Almond -nutty

Burned -prolonged heating during process

Artichoke

Dirty -oils that have absorbed unpleasant odours and flavours of vegetable water, after pressing (contact for too long)

Astringent -A puckering sensation in the mouth (tannins)

Dreggish -odour of warm lubricating oil (caused by poor or lacking execution of the decanting process)

 

Banana

 

Flat -lost characteristic aroma and no taste

Bitter -a typical characteristic of olive oils (from green olives turning colour)

Fusty -due to olives fermenting in piles, while in storage, waiting for pressing

Buttery

Greasy -a diesel or bearing greasy flavour

Fresh -good aroma, fruity, not oxidiced

Grubby -flavour imparted by olive fly grubs

Fruity -flavour and aroma are

Similar to that of a mature olive. Many oils initially seem fruity, but this characteristic may disappear in a few months. A truly fruity oil maintains this characteristic aroma through time

Hay-wood -dried olive taste

Grass -often in green olives, or those crushed with leaves and twigs

Heated -burned taste from prolonged heating

Green -a young fresh, fruity oil, often mixed with bitter. Spicy-bitter, cough sensation at the back of the throat

Muddy Sediment

Green leave -obtained when a small quantity of fresh olive leaves are added in the press. (a trick to enhance the genuine green taste of green olives)

Musty -mouldy flavour from being stored to long before pressing

Hay -dried grass

Metallic -oils, processed or stored with extended contact to metal surfaces

Musky, nutty, woody -very pleasing when not overpowering

Moldy -from unhealthy or fermented olives, due to excessive storage in ware houses

Peppery -A peppery bite in the back in the throat, which can force a cough

Rancid -old oils, which have started oxidizing due to exposure to light or air

Pungent -a rough burning or biting sensation in the throat -peppery

Rough -pasty, thick greasy mouth feel

 

Vegetable water -stored in contact with the juice from the olive

 

Winey -high acidic taste

Storage tips

Olive oil should ideally be kept in a dark glass container, in a cool, dark place.

When purchasing olive oil in large quantities, be sure to decant into smaller, clean bottles, where exposure to air is minimized -Never add fresh oil to older oil