Tastings

It offers the possibility of holding an oil tasting in various settings: at home to surprise friends and family enjoying a gastronomic evening, in restaurants, on the occasion of private meetings or company incentives. The oil tasting can be accompanied by pairing, that is, dishes paired with different oils to discover their attributes through food. Tastings for children or guided visits to oil mills complete its menu of services.
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Attributes of the oil

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The sight

Interestingly, professional tasters do not value the color of virgin olive oils because it is not decisive in their quality. Its tonality will be in the range that goes from greenish yellow to straw yellow.

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Taste

Taste is the stage in which the flavors of olive oil are identified. The vocabulary in the tasting of virgin olive oils is very rich: the sensations in the mouth can be fruity, bitter or spicy and of a light, medium or intense intensity. The positive sensations that extra virgin olive oil leaves in the mouth are fruity, clean, fresh, sweet, almond, pineapple or vegetable.
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The touch

The soft palate and tongue are in charge, through touch, of assessing the structure and consistency of virgin olive oils. It can be watery, fluid, smooth and pasty. Finally, the overall harmony of an oil is judged taking into account all its characteristics and an average note is calculated.
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The sense of smell

Smell is used to identify the aroma of virgin olive oils. Liquid gold gives off numerous olfactory sensations: aromas of apple, leaves, grass, nuts, tomato… To concentrate these aromas, tasters use two tricks: cover the glass they use for tasting for a few seconds or heat with their hands the container and move it slightly.

Fruity:

Remember the smell and taste of healthy, fresh and picked fruit

Ripe fruity:

Flavor of olive oil obtained from ripe fruits.

Nutty:

This flavor can be of two types: that of fresh almonds or that of dried almonds.

Green leaves:

Flavor del aceite obtenido de aceitunas excesivamente verdes o que se han molido mezcladas con hojas y tallos.

Apple:

Flavor of the oil obtained from olives that are excessively green or that have been ground mixed with leaves and stems.

Grass:

Flavor of some oils reminiscent of cut grass.

Bitterness:

Not only is it characteristic of fresh green olives, it is also an inherent attribute with the variety. Thus, we have varieties such as Picual or Cornicabra that are more bitter, for example, than Manzanilla, Lechín or Arbequina.

Negative attributes

Alpechín: Characteristic flavor acquired by the oil due to poor settling and prolonged contact with the vegetation waters. 

Atrojado: Characteristic flavor of oil obtained from piled up olives that have undergone an advanced degree of fermentation. 

Vinegar: Sensation of some oils reminiscent of vinegar.

Lees: characteristic flavor of the oil recovered from the decanted sludge in the tanks. 

Rancid: characteristic and common flavor of all oils that have undergone an autoxidative process, due to their prolonged contact with air. 

Off: it is the oil that has lost its organoleptic characteristics, since it has lost its aromatic components, due to excess temperature during production or due to aging of the oil.

The professional tasting

We have all had the opportunity to experience how, depending on the olive oil we use to cook or to dress a dish, the flavor can vary greatly. This depends on factors such as the variety of olives with which this oil has been made, its degree of maturity, the cultivation field ... All of this means that each oil has its own characteristics. But ... how to distinguish one from the other? There are professional tasters who are dedicated to distinguishing these characteristics under very strict and controlled conditions (for example, in professional tastings it is necessary for olive oils to be at a temperature of 28ºC, etc). 

All the senses, with the exception of hearing, have their particular 'mission' when it comes to distinguishing between the different types of oil: