Years ago, a good cook, who happened to be Greek, told me to think of olive oil not simply as liquid fat, but as an essential ingredient, as flavour and as a seasoning, with the ability to act like herbs and spices. He’s absolutely right and his excellent advice continues to motivate me when I’m choosing extra-virgin olive oil, which is the single most important ingredient I buy, and my biggest expense in the kitchen. While I do have the odd special bottle for drizzling, I am more interested in a good-tasting all-rounder that I can use for everything (my cooking is largely vegetable-, pasta-, pulse-, cheese- and egg-centric), including deep-frying (in a very small pan).
Just to recap, olive oil is the liquid fat obtained by pressing olives, which are fruits. Once picked, they need to be processed as soon as possible – that is, crushed, then centrifugally spun to separate the pulp, water and oil, all in scrupulously clean machinery and at a steady temperature, which preserves the natural aromas of the olives. It takes about eight kilos of olives to make a litre of oil, which, to be considered extra-virgin olive oil, needs to have no defects and no more than 0.8% of free fatty acids. And that comes at a price: expect to pay between £14 and £18 a litre.
That said, I always have an open mind about extra-virgin olive oil and olive oil, which is why I’m also often on the lookout – and why I loved doing this tasting. In the world of professionally qualified olive oil tasters, I am, of course, but an enthusiastic amateur. It may sound silly, even disgusting, but it really is worth tasting the oil.
Start with the bottle you have at home: pour a bit into a small glass, cup it in your hand and rub to warm the oil while covering the top with the other, then lift off your hand and sniff deeply. You might meet tomato vines, unripe bananas, almonds, artichokes, cat pee, pear drops. Or you might meet fish and a pond. This isn’t about getting anything right, but rather deciding on what you like.
Next, take a gulp, hold it in your mouth, clench your teeth and suck air through them (yes, you will feel ridiculous): here, you should meet the scents again, as well as for the bitter phenolic compounds to catch the back of your throat, which is why high-quality extra-virgin olive oils are sometimes referred to as “one cough” or “two cough”, depending on their pungency.
Another characteristic of good extra-virgin olive oil is that it is not oily, but fruity. As with tinned tomatoes, we all have hugely different experiences of taste and flavour. Here are mine.
Best all-rounder
£7.50 for 500ml at Asda
£16 for 1L at Ocado
★★★★☆
Golden in colour, green and alive in flavour. It’s striking how smooth it is – silky, almost. I really like this: it tastes like olives and artichokes, with a peppery, almost spicy finish. I’d use it for everything, in and on; I also think it would be great in olive-oil cakes and biscuits.
Best splurge
£9.95 for 500ml at Sainsbury’s
★★★★☆
A robust and rich oil that tastes of butter and walnuts, with grassy notes and a peppery pungency that catches the back of the throat and made me cough (a good thing). I’d happily use this in and on anything, especially in bean soups, on white beans or boiled potatoes, and in a dressing for thinly sliced fennel.
Best bargain
A good, lingering bitterness, and really tastes of olives, which, odd as it may sound, is not as common as you might hope with olive oil. The flavour is like grass and courgettes, and I think this is a great one for people who cook lots of vegetables, especially pasta and vegetables, in pesto and on bread.
And the rest …
£8.95 for 500ml at Tesco
★★★★☆
The colour is golden, but the taste is green, like herbs, and almost almondy. I liked this very much, also because it tasted alive and caught the back of my throat. It is not a delicate oil, but then neither is my cooking: I would use it for tomato sauces, especially those with anchovies, fish stews, on grilled aubergine and with fennel and orange salad.
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£4 for 500ml at Asda
★★★★☆
Reminiscent of green herbs and tomato plants, I found this a really pleasing and surprising oil, not least for its persistent, peppery notes. A great working oil that I would happily use for day-to-day cooking and dressings.
£4.19 for 500ml; not available online
★★★☆☆
Good note of grassy bitterness – a good thing! – alongside a faint metallic taste, which is annoying rather than terrible. Functional. Use for cooking and enriched, cream, tahini or miso dressings, or for dressings with plenty of other ingredients.
£7.50 for 500ml at Ocado
★★★☆☆
I found it hard to put my finger on just what it is about this oil, but there is something distant and a bit vague about it. But it also has nice qualities, with almost fruity notes and a warm ending. I’d use it for pasta and beans, and in mashed potato or pesto, and mixed with red chilli to go on top of just about everything.
£9.95 for 500ml at Tesco
£11.95 for 1L at Amazon
★★★☆☆
Another dilemma: on the one hand, it’s a bit lazy, with none of the fruity, grassy notes I hope to find, but then, out of nowhere, come almost nutty notes reassuring me it is alive. That is the really interesting thing when you taste lots of oils: they quickly fall into two groups, dead or alive, and this is not dead. A functional oil that I would use in the base of things, such as herb and garlic soffrittos, but not on top.
£5.85 for 500ml at Ocado
★☆☆☆☆
Again, reactions to oil vary, but I met a tinny, metallic flavour in this one. It felt thin in the mouth and there was no sign of olives. In its defence, it was not rancid-tasting – rancid here meaning old and stale. Maybe it could be used in soups and stews.
£7.95 for 500ml at Tesco
£6 for 500ml at Ocado
★☆☆☆☆
This did not agree with my mouth: fatty, sleepy, and no olives in sight. Maybe it could work in a highly spiced dish.
