OLEIFICIO TOSCANO MORETTINI | guide-to-tasting-eng

GUIDE TO TASTING

Our effort is directed toward the production of extra virgin olive oil of the utmost quality. But how can one recognize a perfect olive oil?

What follows is a brief guide to tasting; and techniques one can follow to better appreciate all fragrances.

Pour the olive oil in a small glass, preferably of dark color to avoid influencing the taster in regards to the color

Warm the class in the palm of your hand: the ideal temperature to enhance qualities and defects of oil is around 28° C

Smell, alternating brief but deep inhalations to recognize all the sensations that the olive oil’s bouquet emanates

Taste a small quantity of olive oil, trapping it between the lower lip and your teeth held tight

Suck in air delicately at first and then with growing strength to vaporize the oil throughout the oral cavity

Exhale air through your nose to let the nebulised oil particles hit the olfactory membrane

After having memorized a sufficient quantity of information, expel the oil

7 STEPS

This process will let you perceive some of the olive oil’s main qualities and flavors:

Fruity: the totality of the olfactory perceptions that distinguish an olive oil obtained from healthy and fresh fruit, green and ripe, perceived directly or in the back of the nose;

Bitter: basic flavor characteristic of oil obtained by green or ripening olives, perceived by the tongue’s fungi form taste-buds.

Spicy: the tactile burning sensation typical of oil products at the beginning of the harvest, mostly from still green olives; it can be perceived throughout the oral cavity, especially in the throat;

Grassy: specific fruity hue which recalls the aroma of freshly cut grass, typical of Tuscan oils;

Almond and bitter almond: flavor typified by an aftertaste that recalls the namesake fruit;

Floral: pleasant sensation which reminds us of the penetrating aroma of flowers;

Green tomato: a fragrance that reminds us of the same name fruit, typical of olive oils of particular origin such as the Sicilian ones;

Color from green to yellow: one or the other can prevail depending on the origin, the extraction technology and ripening degree of the fruit. Be careful: the color does not influence the quality of the oil.