Olive Oil Properties – Olive Oil Ingredients – Olive Oil Types

Sun, stone, drought, silence and solitude: these are the five ingredients that, according to folk traditions, create the ideal habitat for the olive tree. We treasure extra-virgin olive oil for its nutritional and salutary virtues. Researchers reports show that extra-virgin olive oil is the most digestible of the edible fats: it helps to assimilate vitamins A, D and K; it contains so-called essential acids that cannot be produced by our own bodies; it slows down the aging process; and it helps bile, liver and intestinal functions. The olive oil is also valued for its culinary virtues and organoleptic properties as well: flavour (sapor), bouquet (aroma), and colour (color).

Climate, soil, variety of olive tree (cultivar) and time of olive harvest account for the different organoleptic properties of different olive oils. Certain extra-virgin olive oils are blends of varieties of olives; other olive oils are made from one cultivar (olive tree variety). The European Community gives the following parameters:

• Extra-virgin olive oil: has perfect taste and its the highest quality olive oil; it has a minimum organoleptic rating of 6,5 out of 10, low acidity (1% or less), and is untreated.
• Olive oil: has a minimum organoleptic rating of 5,5, a maximum of 2% acidity and is untreated.
• The production of all other olive oils involves treatments.

Extra-virgin olive oil is produced in almost all regions of Greece. The leading producers are Crete island, the Peloponnese, Mytilene island, and Chios island. In Italy, Tuscany produces an assortment of extra virgin oils and olive oils that many do not resemble each other. In Umbria (Italy), it is so widely produced that it would be hard to imagine the landscape without the abundance of olive trees. Apulia is home to an impressive one-third of Italy’s olive trees. The top location is Puglia in south Italy.

The price of extra-virgin olive oil varies greatly. Two factors are influential: where the olives are grown and which harvesting methods are implemented. Certain locations yield more bountiful harvests; consequently their olive oil is sold for less. Olive trees planted near the sea can produce up to 20 times more fruit than those planted inland, in hilly areas like Tuscany. It is in these land-locked areas that the olive trees’ habitat is pushed to the extreme; if the conditions were just a little more severe, the olive trees would not survive. Extra-virgin oils produced from these trees have higher organoleptic scores.