What Olive Oil Do I Buy?

HARVEST DATE

This is the best indicator of quality. Olive oil is essentially a fruit juice, made by pressing the juice from olives, with (hopefully) nothing added. It's best when it's fresh, so if you want a great oil, it must be from the most recent harvest – which happens once a year, roughly between October and December.

The taste, aroma, pungency, health benefits (concentration of polyphenols) all deteriorate with age.

If a bottle doesn't display the harvest date, it might be from an older harvest.

EARLY HARVEST

This is a tagline you'll see on some of the more expensive oils.

Around the Mediterranean, olives are harvested roughly between October and December each year. "Early harvest" refers to olives harvested in October or even late September when they're just ripe and still green. This produces a higher quality oil with a higher concentration of polyphenols.

As the olives aren't as juicy in the early harvest period, they produce less oil. So the oil will cost more.

SINGLE-ESTATE

Single estate means that all the olives in the oil are grown on the same farm/estate, which is essential to have quality control and full traceability. The opposite of "single estate" is the phrase "a blend of oils of European Union origin", which you'll see on cheaper bottles. We don't know what the oil is actually made up of, sadly it's very common practice to mix in cheaper vegetable oils, somewhere in the supply chain or mix different harvests or even mix from different countries.

FRAUD

Unfortunately, olive oil is one of the most adulterated food products in the world. It's estimated that 80% of the olive oil on supermarket shelves is 'fake'. "Watering down" extra-virgin olive oil with cheaper vegetable oils is common practice. Over the years, regulation has improved, but the industry is still bitterly fraught with rogues. To produce an inferior extra virgin olive oil, production standards are lowered and substandard oils are used, and most shoppers don't know the difference.

THE COLOUR

The greener the better? No. This is one of the biggest olive oil myths out there. The colour will tell you nothing about an oil's quality. It'll differ based on factors like climate, soil and the olive variety! This is why in olive oil competitions, sommeliers sip from blue cups so they can't be influenced by the oil’s colour.

ACIDITY

The lower the acidity, the better the quality of the oil. For an oil to be called "extra-virgin", it must have an acidity below 0.8 degrees. It's an indication of how many beneficial health properties are present in the oil since these degrade with oxidation – olive oil’s number one enemy! Quality extra virgin olive oil should have a lower free fatty acid percentage. By law an extra virgin olive oil must be < 0.8% to be classed as "extra virgin". Typically a high quality olive oil will be <0.3%, meaning it is less degraded, cleaner, and lasts longer.

OLIVE VARIETY

There are hundreds of olive varieties around the world, with over 400 in Italy alone! Each one produces an oil with different characteristics. Most olive oils come from the same handful of varieties, either because they're easier to grow, are juicier or have a great taste. This narrowing down unfortunately discourages biodiversity in the Mediterranean and encourages monoculture environments. If you're buying an oil made from a rarer olive variety, it may be more expensive to produce, but it will be more unique!

Olive oil is best when as fresh as possible! A quality olive oil will have a shelf life of 2 years. Quality olive oil lasts longer primarily due to high levels of natural antioxidants (polyphenols) and lowest acidity.
Early harvest oils are of a superior quality.
It's estimated that 80% of olive oil on sale today is fake! Generally, you get what you pay for.
The lower the acidity, the better the quality of the oil.
Take note of the olive variety in the oil. Some will use just one type, some will be a blend.
A well-rounded oil should have a good balance of fruitiness, bitterness and pungency.
Good olive oil is down to the process of each producer, not necessarily the country. The terroir plays a huge part in the taste.