Take your first step in the world of olive oil tasting. A useful guide.

Learn how to taste olive oil and assess its quality from its flavor and aroma alone. The difference between good olive oil and a great one is immense, and you cannot compare the pleasure you get from enjoying the good stuff.

Read on and discover the different flavors and aromas you can find in olive oil and what they mean in terms of quality. Just like wine, another prestigious agricultural product, you can taste olive oil to discover its secrets.

Why taste a premium extra virgin olive oil?

If you are still wondering why you even need to taste the olive oil, you will be surprised. As consumers we are used to the vast majority of blunt indifferent refined oils, but once you have tasted taste the real thing, you can never go back to your old habits. A whole new world of aromas and tastes is waiting to be explored. Here we give you only a few good reasons to try an authentic EVOO.

Experience the pleasure of complex aromas and the different intensities from mild to robust.
Tasting the olive oil is the only way to assess its quality and price worthiness.
In modern cuisine the right olive oil needs to be paired with the food. Certain foods need to be enhanced by an olive oil of strong taste, while others need a mild or medium intensity oil that doesn't overpower the existing flavours. Consult our olive oil pairing guide to help you with this task.
Learning how to describe scents and mouthfeel is a great mind game to practice.
Tasting olive oil is a fun skill that you can practice with others and share your findings. This way it is definitely more amusing!
Flavours often bring memories of holidays and favourite dishes . Open a window to your memories and fill your to do list with new tasting goals.
Olive oil has its fanatics, people who have tasted a great amount of varieties and terroirs, and even started their own olive oil seminars and workshops. It is a big community that exist also online.

Tips for Tasting Olive Oil

The following are some tips for tasting olive oil successfully and make the most out of the experience.

To taste olive oil unbiased, pour a few tablespoons of the oil to be tasted in a dark, round glass. It’s better not to let the oil’s color influence your judgment.
To evaluate olive oil’s aroma, pour it at room temperature, and warm it in your hands for a few minutes to allow the volatile aromatic molecules to reach your nose.
Some experts say you should taste olive oil a little hungry, as your senses are sharper. Others recommend not brushing your teen immediately before an olive oil tasting.
Ensure you have plain water in hand to cleanse your palate between tastes, especially if you’re tasting several olive oils.
Taste with like-minded people. Tasting with others is paramount, since we’re all sensitive to different aromas.
If you’re serving food during a casual olive oil tasting with friends, make sure the food is plain and not overly flavorful. White bread and crackers are the perfect food for olive oil tastings.
Take notes. Writing down your impressions allows you to go back to your initial assessment of the olive oil. Taking notes also allows you to compare different oils on paper.

What to look for in Olive Oil?

1. Smell

To taste olive oil, stick your nose in the glass and smell slowly and steadily. Be mindful about the scents you pick up and write them down. Assess the following properties in the oil.

Fruit intensity. How intense are the fruit aromas in the oil? Different olive varieties offer distinct aromas, and they can come forward with different intensities.

"Assess if the oil has low, medium or high fruit intensity."

Type of fruit. After assessing the fruit intensity, evaluate if the fruit aromas are reminiscent of green fruit, ripe fruit or both. The more complex the olive oil’s bouquet, the higher the quality, although one might prefer green aromas overripe ones and the other way around.

Green aromas might come forward as fresh-cut grass, leaves, green apples, citrus fruit or cooking herbs. Ripe fruit aromas are redolent of ripe tomatoes, nuts, cooked apples, berries or tropical fruit.

"Assess if the oil has green, ripe or green and ripe aromas."

Extended wheel of flavors. Source: ZHAW University

2. Taste

After evaluating the oil’s aroma, take a sip, and allow some air to mingle with the oil in your mouth.

Bitterness. Bitterness is a common descriptor in quality olive oil that has been cold pressed with no additives. A slight bitterness can be pretty pleasing and welcoming, and when that attractive bitter flavor is balanced in the oil, it’s exciting!

Pungency. Pungency comes from tannins and polyphenols in olives — plant-based molecules that cause a drying sensation in the palate. Pungency is common in under-ripe olives and can be attractive if balanced with the rest of the flavors. You can feel the polyphenols in the mid palate and the back of your throat.

"Olive oil should taste fruity, bitter and pungent (peppery)."

Acidity. Almost no olive oil tastes acidic, at least in the same way we describe citrus fruit and vinegar. Still, free fatty acid molecules in olive oil are a sign of lesser quality, bad quality olives and poor storage methods which release more of these molecules. True EVOO has the lowest levels of free acidity, with less than 0.8%.

Common Defects in Olive Oil

No olive oil is perfect. In the best-case scenario, we’re talking about an agricultural product made with an artisan process, which leads to interesting but sometimes undesirable traits.

Although defects in olive oil abound and include briny flavors, a metallic taste, funky aromas and a greasy mouthfeel, these are the most common defects in olive oil. See if you can pick them up.

Fusty/Muddy

This hard-to-describe funky aroma appears in olive oil when the olives are not stored correctly. They’ve fermented developing fusty or muddy scents.

Musty-humid-earthy

You’ll detect scents redolent of a damp cellar or basement when the olives were infected by fungi or yeast due to slow processing or poor storage conditions.

Winey-vinegary

If the olives ferment before being pressed, yeast turns some of the juice into alcohol, literally giving the olive oil winey aromas, or even worse, vinegar scents.

Wet wood

This common defect in olive oil happens when producers process damaged olives, often by frost. Frostbitten olives can damage the oil’s quality.

Rancid

Rancid aromas in olive oil mean that the oil has been exposed to oxygen for extended periods, so the fatty molecules have begun to break down.

Are you ready to start?

Tasting olive oil using the proper techniques can help you assess the oil’s quality and determine if it’s worth its price tag or not. Besides, tasting olive oil will help you hone your tasting skills and become a better taster in general. There’s lots to learn about olive oil, and learning how to describe its scents, mouthfeel and flavors is an excellent way of enjoying premium olive oil even more!

Now that you know the basics of tasting olive oil, it’s time to pour yourself a shot of premium Vassae olive oil and explore its complex aromas and silken palate. The finest olive oils are on top of the quality pyramid for a reason.

And here’s a warning. After tasting premium EVOO, regular olive oil will probably disappoint you. You’ve gotten used to the good stuff!