Knowledge about the different olive oils – extra virgin what’s that ?
Unfortunately, and like with every “food” industry the consumer is often mislead. A good example is the term “light olive oil” which is associated by just about everyone to a be a lighter, perhaps even less fatty oil. The truth could not be further from that. Oil is always oil = which is 100 a fat. No matter what it says on the label.
The big difference comes into play with the quality of the oil. Good (extra virgin) oil has tremendous health benefits while light olive oil is made from the leftovers at the press from the first pressing (that is why extra virgin olive oil is often called first pressed). Large companies buy the bulp that is left over after the first pressing and take it to large olive processing plants (nothing similar to an olive press we use) and release the last bit of oil by using heat and chemicals similar to diswasher liquid to extract what’s left in there.
The result is that all the health benefits of the extra virgin olive oil (if properly manufactured) are gone and the light olive oil actually has the reverse effect on our health – so do not use it or only scarsely.
Here the definition of the various olive oils:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (often called first pressed) – Produced in limited quantities – this is the very best Olive Oil and if from “known” sources (such as from a grove that produces Estate oil which means from this particular Grove only, or from Groves that produce Olives of the same quality and that are indicated on the label) demands a high price. If produced with oganic farming methods (without the use of chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers) then you get the very best product nature can provide and with it all the health benefits (see health benefit page in this website).
Virgin Olive Oil - still a good olive oil but it is more acid and the flavors are not as perfect. It’s the second best olive oil.
Light Olive Oil – this extra “refined” oil does not have the qualities of Virgin or particularly Extra Virgin Olive oil and should in our view be avoided altogether.
The Oil making Process:
Olive oil is as pure as nature. A good Extra Virgin Olive oil is simply put a fruit juice. No preservatives, no colors, no flavors, nothing is added at all. Firstly the olives are picked either mechanically or by hand. The goal is to get the fruit off the trees without bruising them and get them to the olive press in the shortest possible period of time. Time is of essence since every fruit picked (and this includes olives) starts to oxydise and with this deteriorates in quality. Olives being used for oil production obviously have a high fat or oil content and oxydation in fats creates what is called “rancidity”. That’s bad and a poor batch of olives can spoil the whole production of a grove of a year.
So careful preparation of the picking (get sufficient people, cut the grass to get to the trees, prepare crates – clean ones – picking utensils, nets, buckets) etc. is of essence. Ideally the olives are picked within a short period of time, say 2 or 3 days – and kept in aerated trays (not too large ones so the olives on the bottom of the tray are not squashed). The trays are kept in a cool shaded area (Los Olivos uses an insulated shed) and are then brought into the press immediately.
handpicked olives, carefully treated they do not bruise so no oxydation before pressing:
Where to get good oil?
As you would expect from this website, we are certainly suggesting that the oil from Los Olivos in Mudgee is a good one. But the purpose of this knowledge base page is to provide information about olive oil in general to the interested public and not to promote our products only.
Principally a good olive oil comes from a source that you know personally or have access to knowledge. The best way of sourcing oil is from a grove. In Europe people are often over decades loyally sourcing their olive oil from the same producers, often a family grove.
So go and visit the grove after the first fresh unfiltered oil becomes available and buy it on the farm. In doing that you will get a feel for the quality of the grove management, the quality of the workmanship in caring for the farm and the fruit and ultimately the oil.
In comparison you can buy an extra virgin olive oil at any supermarket for a cheap price. This oil is often called Italian Extra Virgin Olive oil or form another country. Fact is however, that Italy produces a lot less olive oil than what they sell as Italian extra virgin olive oil around the globe. They make up the difference by purchasing bulk olive oil from mainly Spain but any other country that produces olive oil around the Mediterranean. This oil is then shipped to Italy and blended and packed and then becomes miraculously Italian olive oil.
You can imagine that this oil is hauled with large tankers or trucks and is often transported in appalling containers. A world apart from how boutique oil is handled in Australia. So why buying a product that travels half around the world with no indication of who made it, how old it is and no certainty about the processing facilities if you can buy Australian oil? Price perhaps.
But let us tell you that what you pay for is what you get. We are not suggesting to use only the finest filtered or unfiltered organic olive oil for all your consumption (even though we do and many of our friends for health reasons) – you can by all means use different quality but extra virgin olive oil for different purposes. But buy some truly good oil as a treat to use with salads, over cooked foods, with a fresh bred etc. Try to get real bred, not the stuff in plastic bags. Something like a Morpeth bakery bred at Harris Farm markets for instance. Use some real salt (not the stuff at the supermarket) like the Himalayan salt or pink salt as it is called which is balanced in its mineral content – (not just sodium which your body rejects as a poison hence the thirst to get enough water into the system to get rid of it).
Toast the bred, let it cool off, press the content of a ripe tomato (any Italian neighbors ?) onto the toast, then a small amount of unfiltered extra virgin oil from organic farming (see the bottle below from Italy which provides a tiny little stream of oil) a bit of salt and eat this..Magic you will see.
Add a bit of coriander if you have or boil an organic or biodynamic egg (see below) and eat this together. To us this is like dying and going to heaven. But it probably won’t’ happen since this is very healthy food and helps your body to get the healthy fats. Nature does the rest.
If you want to know more, visit www.olive-oil.com.au
About the Author
Proprietor of an organic olive grove in Australia producing extra virgin organic olive oil
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