A friend thought my pair of  olive oil tasting cups would make perfect candleholders. She might just have a point.

We recently saw a “Tweet” about the cobalt blue vessels: “Research shows that the blue EVOO tasting glasses don’t even work!” Australian olive oil expert Richard Gawel declared in a message, or Tweet, on Twitter.

I’ve used the stemless glasses to sample extra virgin olive oils. Trained olive oil tasters use them when judging oil and evaluating whether a particular oil should be classified as “extra virgin” or some lower grade. The tasting cup’s blue tint is meant to mask the oil’s color so it won’t influence a taster’s judgment.

But a recent study in the Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society suggests black would be more effective.

In the study, researchers from Spain performed high-tech color measurements on 18 blue-tinted tasting cups. They used 10 commercial olive oils in the process.

“Our main goal was to test whether traditional blue-tinted cups effectively conceal the color of virgin olive oils,” the researchers wrote.

It’s an interesting question. To be certified “extra virgin,” an oil must pass a barrage of tests – some conducted by lab technicians, and others done by a panel of professional olive oil tasters.

It’s the taster’s job to analyze the aroma, taste, and pungency of the oil to see if it passes muster. Color doesn’t indicate the quality of the oil. Hence, the blue-tinted cups.

The Spanish researchers found the cups aren’t fool-proof. It turns out you can tell the color in certain instances, according to their tests.

“Blue-tinted olive-oil-tasting cups reduce, but do not completely conceal, oil color,” the researchers concluded. “The use of opaque tasting cups with black walls is suggested.”

You be the judge. But I’m guessing it won’t be the last we hear on the matter.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Just like you can’t judge a book by its cover or a horse by its color, you can’t tell whether an olive oil will taste good by its color.

Olive oil expert Fran Gage says as much: “Color isn’t an accurate indicator of quality or taste,” she writes in her book The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009).

That’s why professional olive oil tasters use a special blue glass – like the one pictured here – when they taste oils.  The blue tint masks the oil’s color, so it won’t influence a taster’s judgment.

But an olive oil’s color will tell you other things. Olives harvested early in the season, for example, are naturally very green and therefore produce a greener oil.

Australian olive oil expert Richard Gawel offers more details:

“Olives picked early in the season tend to make green colored oil as they contain higher levels of chlorophyll,” he writes in a very informative FAQ posted on the Internet.

“Olives harvested late in the season will typically produce more golden colored oils due to a higher level of natural occurring levels of carotene-like substances. Both oils may be technically equivalent in quality but very different in style.”

What’s more, you want to avoid buying extra virgin olive oil in a clear bottle to see its color. Light is among the enemies of EVOO. Together, heat, light and oxygen promote oxidation and can make the oil rancid.

“If you purchase a very green looking oil, make sure it is stored in a dark bottle in a dark place,” advises Gawel. “The stuff that makes it green (chlorophyll) helps start the reaction that makes oils rancid, but only in the presence of light.”

That’s the main reason we choose dark colored glass to bottle our extra virgin olive oils, including our new Everyday California EVOO.  Stay tuned for more information about that new oil.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I like to rate the pungency of our extra virgin olive oils by how many times people cough when they swallow the oil during a tasting. I tell people our Koroneiki EVOO is a “two or three cougher.”

It packs a deliciously robust flavor, and finishes with a pleasant, peppery zing in the throat. The oil is the most pungent EVOO we produce. A case in point: I hosted a tasting earlier this year for a large group of chefs in San Diego. And, sure enough, people were clearing their throats after tasting our Koroneiki.

I want to focus on the Koroneiki olive in this blog post, following my earlier posts about the two other olives we grow: Arbequina and Arbosana. Unlike those olives, however, we don’t bottle our Koroneiki oil as a single varietal extra virgin olive oil. Instead, we blend it into our Arbequina EVOO.

That blending kicks up the Arbequina’s flavor a notch. And it gives the Arbequina a more complex taste profile. The blending also extends the Arbequina’s shelf life.

The Koroneiki olive hails from Greece, where it’s grown to produce oil. The tree has grown there for more than 3,000 years. It’s a prolific olive producer. And the Koroneiki olive itself is very small.

That small olive, however, delivers a healthy punch. The Koroneiki olive has a very high level of polyphenols, the chemical substances found in plants that may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Our Koroneiki olives represent about 10 percent of the olives we grow on Northern California ranches that extend from Fresno up to Corning. It’s our smallest olive crop. By contrast, our Arbequina olives accounts for 70 percent and Arbosana the remaining 20 percent.

We use a system known as “super high-density planting” for all three olive varietals. It allows us to harvest the olives more quickly and get them to the mill to be crushed into fresh extra virgin olive oil.

Our Koroneiki EVOO has a robust fruity nose with a strong, peppery finish. It’s characterized by aromas of fresh grass and artichokes.

One final note: Our miller Bob Singletary says the complexity of Koroneiki makes it a favorite of people who enjoy a Tuscan-style flavor profile.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I hooked up with two colleagues recently in Denver. The weather was chilly and wet, a bit unusual for Colorado in July. But we had a great lunch at The Capital Grille. We ordered seafood – I can recommend the sea scallops with gingered rice and white miso broth. Afterward, we chatted with the executive chef: Larry Bergstein. And, during lunch, my colleagues and I talked olive oil … and olives – including the varietals we grow in northern California.

The topic of olives came up because I’ve been blogging about our olive varietals, starting with the Spanish Arbequina olive. I want to move on to Arbosana, another Spanish varietal we grow.

We grow three varietals: Arbequina and Arbosana, both from Spain, and Koroneiki, from Greece. We use a system known as “super high-density planting” that allows us to harvest the olives more quickly and get them to the mill to be crushed into fresh extra virgin olive oil.

Arbosana accounts for about 20 percent of the olives we grow on ranches extending in northern California from Fresno up to Corning. Arbosana is our second largest varietal after Arbequina. The latter accounts for about 70 percent of our olives.

How do these two olives differ?

“The Arbosana variety has fruit that looks very much like Arbequina, but matures about three weeks later,” writes olive oil expert Paul Vossen, farm adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Sonoma County.

Arbosana is considered a more robust olive than Arbequina. It tastes more peppery, or pungent. It also delivers a higher level of polyphenols – the chemical substances found in plants that may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

And the taste? Arbosana has a fruity flavor, along with nutty tones, and medium pungency. This from our tasting notes: green tomato, almond, and green banana.

Try drizzling it over a variety of foods, from gazpacho to grilled halibut.

Next up: the Koroneiki olive.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

When a culinary pro suggested we write about different olive varietals, I thought: “Good idea. We’ll write about the olives we grow.”

So here goes. Thousands of varieties of olives exist worldwide. But only a small percentage account for most of the olives grown today.

We grow three varietals: Arbequina and Arbosana, both from Spain, and Koroneiki, from Greece.

We plant the trees using a system known as “super high-density planting.” It allows us to grow the trees in hedge rows of 570 to 670 trees per acre, versus traditional plantings of 100 to 150 per acre. That way, our high-speed harvesting machines can harvest the trees far more quickly – and deliver the olives to our mills so they can be crushed into fresh extra virgin olive oil.

Arbequina represents 70 percent of the olives we harvest in northern California, from Fresno north to Corning. Arbequina also is the major olive tree of Catalonia, in northeast Spain.

The tree is relatively small. It resists frost well. And the oval-shaped olives it produces are small. The olives also ripen relatively early versus other varietals.

In Europe, you can sometimes find the Arbequina olive tree put in a a pot and placed at the front entrance of cafés.

Our Arbequina extra virgin olive oil has a high fruitiness, balanced pungency, and a very pleasing clean taste. Here are our tasting notes: ripe tropical fruits, apple, and fresh artichoke.

The Arbequina olive yields what’s considered among the more delicate olive oils. “It’s a flavor that everyone can approach.” says Nancy Ash, a trained olive oil taster and owner of the consulting firm Strictly Olive Oil. “It has a lot of good fruit aroma to it.”

We’re particularly proud of our Arbequina these days. Cook’s Illustrated recently rated our Arbequina the best California EVOO among the 10 California oils the magazine’s staff tasted.

Stay tuned for more on the Arbosana olive.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I’ve been anxious to read an article due out in this September’s issue of Cook’s Illustrated. A colleague of mine who was surfing the Internet last night found an electronic version of the piece: It details a blind tasting of California extra virgin olive oils the magazine’s staff conducted earlier this year.

I already know the results. Food guru Jack Bishop of Cook’s Illustrated announced on NBC’s Weekend Today show earlier this month our Arbequina extra virgin olive oil was the best California EVOO among the 10 sampled.

We were told the details of the tasting would emerge in the September issue of Cook’s Illustrated. Now that the article is on my screen, I can tell you what the magazine said about our Arbequina: “This extra-virgin oil, made from Arbequina olives, won raves for its fresh, sweet, fruity flavor and pleasing hint of bitterness.”

The article also praised the quality of California extra virgin olive oils in general versus their European counterparts: “The California growers—particularly the folks behind our favorite, relatively affordable oil—have clearly struck something promising.”

To use a term the pros use when tasting olive oil, I’ll “slurp” to that.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I tuned in to NBC’s Weekend Today show yesterday and was thrilled to see Cook’s Illustrated magazine has rated our Arbequina the No. 1 tasting California extra virgin olive oil.

Food expert Jack Bishop, who oversees editorial operations at the magazine, raved about our Arbequina during a segment of the show focusing on olive oil and how to taste EVOO.

“We love this,” Bishop exclaimed to Weekend Today co-anchor Jenna Wolfe, as they stood on the set of the show with a bottle of our Arbequina on the counter. “This is California Olive Ranch. It was our top-ranked of the 10 California oils that we sampled.”

Bishop went on to say our Arbequina “tastes delicious.”

“We thought this was as good as any European oil.”

Cook’s Illustrated plans to publish its list of the top olive oils in its September issue.

Bishop – who also is editorial director of the popular public TV cooking show America’s Test Kitchen – praised California’s olive oil industry, likening it to the state’s world famous wine industry.

“The California olive oil industry is sort of like the wine industry was in California back in the 1970s. Nobody’s heard of it. But you’re going to hear about it very soon,” said Bishop. “They’re doing a tremendous amount of olive oil now out in California.”

And Bishop predicted strong growth for California olive oils: “They’re going to be in supermarkets all over the country in coming years.”

I couldn’t agree more!

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Paolo Pedrazzani has extra virgin olive oil in his blood … literally. A native of northern Italy, Paolo starts his day with a spoonful of extra virgin olive oil before he’s had anything else to eat or drink.

“Every morning,” says Paolo, 42, speaking with a wonderfully flowing Italian accent. “It makes you feel comfortable in the morning. And it warms you up, too.”

Paolo owns a highly regarded Italian restaurant north of San Diego, in Encinitas. It’s called Via Italia Trattoria.  He told us about his olive oil habit in March when California Olive Ranch hosted an extra virgin olive oil tasting and lunch in La Jolla.

Paolo says the olive oil can cure stomach troubles. “If you have some kind of stomach ache, or acidity, it helps you out.” Paolo initially took the olive oil for health reasons. Now he consumes it for pure enjoyment.

As a child in Italy, Paolo’s mother and grandmother got him to drink olive oil from a spoon. He wasn’t much of a fan then. “I thought it was terrible,” Paolo recalls.

But he’s changed his mind since then. “It’s one of my pleasures starting the day,” says Paolo, noting it’s like putting “a spoon of velvet on your stomach.”

Turns out, Paolo is not the only one who takes olive oil this way. When he mentions the practice in conversation, people tell him: “My grandmother did that, too.”

I might have to try this myself.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

An olive oil tasting – like a wine tasting – lets chefs such as you understand the oil’s aroma, flavor and peppery quality, or pungency. Those features form the core attributes of true extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). A tasting also can help you gauge defects – such as mustiness – found in lesser quality oils. We taste our extra virgin olive oils at California Olive Ranch throughout the milling process – from the time we press the fresh olives to the time the oil goes into the bottle.

Tasting, of course, also gives you a better idea of how to pair a particular extra virgin olive oil with a certain dish. For example, you may want to pair a more peppery extra virgin olive oil with a single ingredient such as fresh mozzarella. That combo allows the olive oil to shine through.

Here’s how to conduct a thorough tasting.

First, pour about a tablespoon of oil into a wine glass, or similarly tapered glass. (Expert olive oil tasters sip from the blue olive oil tasting glass in the picture that’s available from Corti Brothers.) Cover the glass with one hand while you hold the bowl of the glass in the other hand. You want the oil to be about 70 degrees Fahrenheit – considered the best temperature for tasting.

Next come the “Four S’s,” as described by Nancy Ash, a trained olive oil taster and owner of the consulting firm Strictly Olive Oil:

1.    SWIRL – While you cover the top of the glass with one hand, swirl the oil to release the aromas.

2.    SNIFF – Uncover the glass and hold the top up to your nose and quickly smell the oil. The scent is key to the oil’s fruitiness. “You want to get one big sniff impression of the oil,” says Ash.

3.    SLURP – Take a sip of the oil while also “sipping” a bit of air. The slurping action combines the oil with the air and spreads it throughout your mouth. Notice the oil’s “smell” in your mouth – the retro-nasal aromas – as well as the different sensations throughout your mouth.

4.    SWALLOW – Don’t worry, it’s just a small amount of oil! Notice if there is a peppery or stinging sensation in your throat, and how long the sensation lingers.

While tasting the oil, keep in mind the three positive attributes of true extra virgin olive oil:

– Fruitiness, which you can sense from smelling the oil.

– Bittery, reflected in a pleasantly bitter taste. “It’s a natural expression of the olive,” says Ash.

– Pungency, the peppery or stingy sensation in your throat when you swallow the oil.
Classic “defects” include oil that tastes musty or rancid.

If you plan to sample another extra virgin olive oil, take a bite from a tart green apple followed by a sip of water. That will cleanse your palate.

That said, slurp away!

Bon appétit,
Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch