Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Even before Rachael Ray coined her perky catchphrase “EVOO,” extra
virgin olive oil’s popularity was skyrocketing. The international olive
oil industry has become bigger and more profitable than the wine
industry, according to Armando Manni of Manni Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
The figures support his assertion – according to the International
Olive Oil Council, the US imported 90,000 metric tons of EVOO in 1990.
By 2006 that figure had risen to 240,000 metric tons.

Nowhere is the industry’s growth more apparent than in the restaurant
and retail sector. At the Four Seasons Silicon Valley, executive chef
Alessandro Cartumini treats oil with a reverence usually reserved for a
fine wine or liqueur: his menu at Quattro offers a variety of Manni
olive oils for three dollars a pour. Shelves in the olive oil aisles of
Whole Foods Markets are packed full with bottles, while customers at
Draeger’s gourmet markets can select from over 70 olive oils.

So which oil to choose? Do you buy the brand that claims to have won
awards, or the oil that hails from the most alluring locale? Perhaps
the bottle with the bonus pouring spout, the one that’s an olive-y
green, or the sleek glass flask that matches your Method dish soap
dispenser? Those who judge an olive oil by its bottle, take note: heat
and UV rays break down some of the oil’s healthful properties, so don’t
display it on the counter. Stash it instead in a cool, dark place away
from the stove.

At the recently opened The Olive Bar in Campbell, customers can sample
up to 16 EVOO varietals. Proprietor Ed De Soto was a food broker for
years, but wasn’t educated about olive oil until a year ago. “I had
olive oil in my garage for two to three years. I thought rancid was a
flavor,” he recalls.

“Rancid products are pathogens and sources of free radicals,” says Mike
Bradley, president of Veronica Foods, the De Sotos’ supplier. Free
radicals contribute to aging, heart disease and cancer – things that
polyphenols, a type of antioxidant found in good quality, well-stored
olive oil, should fight and protect against. Polyphenols are a
relatively recent discovery – in the past, the focus of olive oil’s
health benefits was on how its monounsaturated fats help lower LDL, the
bad cholesterol, without lowering HDL, the good one.

Manni, who sells to some of the finest restaurants in the world,
including Napa’s The French Laundry, is manic about polyphenols. He
works with the University of Florence to analyze the best time to
harvest his olives, pours his oils into 3.4oz bottles of dark,
UV-filtering glass, and tops them with inert gas to protect these
antioxidants. Polyphenol levels of 250mg per liter are considered high;
Manni’s oils contain levels as high as 450mg per liter. These
meticulously produced oils cost over $300 for 10 bottles.

Veronica Foods, which produces Delizia olive oil, holds its oil
in stainless steel tanks to minimize exposure and deterioration. The De
Sotos then transfer the oil into stainless steel drums, and dispense it
in dark glass bottles. Ken Manley, the head gourmet buyer for
Draeger’s, lauds such methods. “The oil lasts so much longer. You can
taste the difference.”

While dark glass is better for the oil, many producers insist on using
transparent bottles, often considered more visually appealing. “We buy
some clear bottles because they sell quickly,” says Manley. “I’ve
talked a dozen companies into changing their packaging to the dark
bottle, but it’s a double-edged sword, because producers want to show
off their oil color.”

This, despite the fact that color not only has no bearing on the oil’s
flavor, but can even be the sign of an inferior product. Some producers
crush olives with leaves to make the oil greener. Bradley says with
soybean oil fetching 40 cents a pound, compared with five dollars a
pound for olive oil, unscrupulous producers may blend olive oil with
soybean oil and green dye.

So, unless you want to take home an extra virgin oil that’s about as
virginal as Paris Hilton, be sure to read the label carefully. “Citrus
Olive Oil produced in Italy” tells you nothing. Ideally, the olives
were crushed with citrus, but it could just as well be older Italian
oil infused with citrus to disguise the rancid taste. Or Tunisian olive
oil blended with citrus flavoring and bottled in Italy. “It’s legal to
put ‘Product of Italy’ if it’s the last country of handling,” explains
Patty Darragh, executive director of the California Olive Oil Council
(COOC).

Bradley also warns buyers to be wary of misleading labeling such as
“pure olive oil” and “light.” These products can consist of as little
as five percent virgin oil, with the rest consisting of refined,
inferior oil. As a result, the polyphenol levels are miniscule.

“A lot of imported oils are mislabeled or adulterated,”
cautions Darragh. “Currently there are no federal standards for
imported oils, so it’s buyer beware.”

The word “handpicked” on a label implies a superior, artisan product.
Handpicked olives cost more ($500 per ton, versus $80 to $120 per ton
for those picked by machine) and are better than the machines, which
“bat the heck out of olives,” according to Albert Katz, whose Katz
& Company makes the award-winning Rock Hill olive oil. But
handpicking doesn’t guarantee good oil. “You can handpick and still
screw up your olives if you don’t press right away,” he says.

While deceptive labeling is common Bradley insists, “These frauds
eriphery. What’s hurting the industry is the ridiculously low standards
and lack of understanding by the public, which includes the retailers.”

A good olive oil label should read like that of a fine wine: “Abbae de
Queiles, 0.1 percent acidity, organic Arbequina olives, harvested
November 2006,” with additional details such as “grown in the Navarra
region of Spain, crushed within two hours of picking.”

When you get past the bottling and labeling, be sure to taste the oil.
The peppery tasting EVOOs tend to be higher in polyphenols. Just like
wine, other variables can affect antioxidant levels and flavor,
including terroir (climate, soil and altitude), dry farming, harvesting
and storage, says Bradley.

Once you get your chosen EVOO home, use it within a couple of months.
“If you don’t have use-by dates, you get a false sense of how long the
product will last,” said Manley.

“A lot of olive oils are just sitting in a warehouse, but they need to be consumed within two years,” agrees Darragh.

While there may be varying levels of quality, Bradley is
adamant that good olive oil shouldn’t be too hard to find. “If your
trees are healthy, you pick it on time at its peak of ripeness and you
crush it in a timely fashion, it’s hard to make bad olive oil.”

在Downtown Campbell有一家專賣各式各樣橄欖油和陳年黑醋的店, 那家店叫The Olive Bar, 每一種油或醋都是裝在大鐵桶裡, 你可以倒一點在小碟上試吃, 在決定要不要買. 它不但有賣純的橄欖油和陳年黑醋, 也賣加了風味的橄欖油, 像是大蒜, 檸檬, 九層塔, 白松露, 而加了風味的陳年黑醋的選擇更多, 像是無花果, 梨子, 草莓, 橘子 等等, 有機會不妨去看看吧. 232 E Campbell Ave, Campbell