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BOUTIQUE OLIVE OIL FROM SPAIN |
| Like many Spaniards, we breakfast on bread and olive oil (with or without other things) rather than butter, etc. It's tasty and it's healthy. As a result we are very concious of the quality of the oil we use for this purpose - although we consume very little at breakfast. Therefore we have sought out, tasted and compared the best oils we can find. Price is of no importance as the cost per day is insignificant. (We consume non-boutique oil for cooking.) On this page, we share some of our experience. |
| OLIVES In Spain the three main varieties of olives for oil production are picual, hojiblanca and arbequina although there are dozens of others (some important in terms of taste). Large amounts of olives are exported to other countries (Italy in particular) for oil production and bottling. By the way the labels on those bottles do not reveal this. Oil made from one variety (varietal oil) is widely available and, in fact, a varietal oil (hojiblanca) is one of the most popular oils for general purposes. However, experts say the very best oils must be made from a blend of varieties. |
| CLASSIFICATION At least in Europe, classification was standardised at the beginning of this decade. We are only concerned here with the top of the range, known as "EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL". Part of the classification process entails tasting by independent experts and this has fallen into great disrepute, especially in Italy. You can find details on the internet (Slippery Business - a very valuable article) and on Wikipedia. We have no idea if there is a similar problem in Spain. However, one thing is clear. A trained and qualified taster is perfectly capable of distinguishing any of the roughly two dozen possible faults in olive oil. We hope the EU will tighten up on tasters by cross-checking and blind tasting, and make the process reliable - if it is not already. Boutique (our words) oil is a subset of the extra virgin category and there is no point paying for it unless you can tell the difference by tasting. Don't buy the label - buy the taste. However, new legislation obliges producers to test and print a number of extremely useful key indicators on their labels. These are: maximum acidity (in degrees), the peroxide index (mE O2g/kg), wax (mg/kg) and K270 (an index). What are these indicators and can they really help? In future editions of this page, we plan to add the answers to these and other questions. |
| TASTING Tasting is best done at breakfast, with a completely clean palette. Some of the attributes that professional tasters can detect are mentioned here - a reference well worth reading. We find boutique oil does not go well with every dish but this is for you to decide. The following are a list of boutique oils we have tasted recently. |
| RIHUELO ARBEQUINA, 0.5-litre bottle, light and fresh, around 7 euros (14 euros per litre). |
| OLEARUM ARBEQUINA - Siurana, 0.75-litre bottle. A low-cost, excellent and popular boutique oil. About 7 euros (9.3 euros per litre). |
| DAURO BLENDED, 0.5-litre bottle. Superb oil, amazingly fresh, great flavour. Top in a competition run by the Spanish government 2006-2007. Max. acidity: 0.1; perox. index: 8.0; wax 142; K270: 0.12. About 17 euros (34 euros per litre). |
| ARZUAGA CORNICABRA, 0.75-litre bottle. A little heavier than other oils, with an agreeable flavour. Max. acidity: 0.2; perox. index: 6; wax 69; K270: 0.12. From the Toledo region. About 8 euros (11 euros per litre). |
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