95% of Italian Olive oil is not

[Leepinla]

On August 10, 1991, a rusty tanker called the Mazal II docked at the industrial port of Ordu, in Turkey, and pumped twenty-two hundred tons of hazelnut oil into its hold. The ship then embarked on a meandering voyage through the Mediterranean and the North Sea. By September 21st, when the Mazal II reached Barletta, a port in Puglia, in southern Italy, its cargo had become, on the ship?s official documents, Greek olive oil. It slipped through customs, possibly with the connivance of an official, was piped into tanker trucks, and was delivered to the refinery of Riolio, an Italian olive-oil producer based in Barletta. There it was sold?in some instances blended with real olive oil?to Riolio customers.

[Leepinla]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

To you and I,, Its Greek olive oil for me.

[Bacterium]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

Olive oil or not....interesting discussion.
What is actually in a lot of the stuff we buy?

I used to buy the various stuff in supermarkets - usually whatever was on special(often Italian branded). Then I went along to a few of our local growers (farmers) markets in the surrounding country areas. They have local olive growers with their products (locally grown and pressed EVOO). Wow it opened my eye (actually my taste buds) to the differences - the supermarket EVOO was thin or lacking in flavour.

Just through local growers(South Australia) you can get irrigation grown, dryland farmed (non irrigation) and vintage (really realy old trees - more wild than farmlot grown) olives - resulting in interesting variations to taste of the EVOO (plus the eating olives as well). Once you look around and buy EVOO bulk (2 -5 liters or more) it works out only a few more dollars than supermarket prices of the imitation stuff.

[JoeT62]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

Yeah, I heard an NPR report on this a few weeks back. The reporter didn't have a lot of good advice for us supermarket dwellers. He suggested going directly to small producers and buying locally, but that's a bit tough in Massachusetts!

I think EVOO is still in it's infancy as "high end" food/drink items go. Ultimately some sort of governing board with apellations, inspections, etc will have to get going, or consumers will lose confidence in the product.

[maver]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

So anybody buy the FB.com olive oil yet? Still on my to do list... Would be interested in a review.

Marc

[RTflorida]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

YES, received it about 2 wks ago......

My initial opinion was yes, definetly more flavorful that my supposed store bought "artisan" EVO. But in all honesty, I'm not nearly as good as my wife at detecting some of the subtle differences; so I did a blind taste test on her.........she didn't even taste our regular oil, with a sip of the FB oil she instantly responded - "much more flavor, fresher tasting, this HAS to be your new oil".

I would also add that she was the skeptic when I ordered it, asking me why I would spend more and wait for something I had not sampled or previously tasted. In reality, it was only $4 -$5 more per liter, and the wait now seems well worth it (FB EVO was actually backordered at the time I placed my order). James gives his assurance stock is plentiful and there should be no supply interruptions in the future.

RT

[james]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

With some modesty, here is an email review from one of our members. Hey, we only import it; the frantoio does all the hard work. :-)
James

"I just received the new olive oil. I went right for the oil and poured a bit into my clear Pyrex “tasting glass”.
Nice color, but oh the taste is the best I ever had! I was waiting for a bite but it never came (thankfully).
Very fresh and natural tasting, while being very smooth. I emphasize the words fresh tasting.
That was only straight from the glass. I’m making many pizzas this weekend and look forward to swirling some of this oil on top.

I’m already thinking about the fear of running out of this oil and haven’t even started yet."

[james]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

I can add a few more nice ideas here.

I think our oil tastes fresh, because it is fresh. It is the current harvest, and it has never left the farm. The trees, the pruners and pickers, and the oil mill itself are all at the farm, and we ship directly to FB from the frantoio.

Sadly, you not only see "Italian" olive oil that comes from other countries, you also see very old (stale, 2-3+ year old) Italian olive oil in the U.S. We are an easy place to dump old product.

The FB EVO isn't like any other olive oil you will see in the U.S.

I must really care about olive oil because three different people have emailed or mailed me the New Yorker oil article. :-)
James

[RTflorida]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

that pretty much somes up our taste test as well. James, you did good, very good

RT

[dmun]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

On August 10, 1991, a rusty tanker called the Mazal II docked at the industrial port of Ordu, in Turkey, and pumped twenty-two hundred tons of hazelnut oil into its hold.

Now here's the rub. Turkish hazelnut oil sounds like a really classy product, like other nut oils. It seems to me that with a little fancy packaging and marketing it could be sold at a big premium over the generic food oils that the article makes it out to be.

[james]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

It's all market perception. The biggest thing I see is that "Italian" oils, and oils from the right regions in Italy simply demand a higher price on the world market. We receive offers from time to time for bulk oil -- and we have had quotes for "nice" oils from Sicily, Turkey and Spain, and they definitely cost less.

So I guess the enterprising minds says "lets stick a different label on this and sell it for a higher price."

For years I have thought it would be a great idea for the Spanish gov't to spend a bunch of money on marketing Spanish olive oil to get the price up. Better that than just bulk selling it to Italy. Oh well.

I think it is somewhat similar to wine grapes, where grapes from two adjacent vineyards can cost wildly different amounts based on reputation, sun, exposure, irrigation technique, pruning technique, controlled yeilds, etc. The big difference between grapes and olives is that it is a lot harder to cheap with grapes.

That said, a winery (Folinari I think) was fined a few years ago for putting too many cheap grapes from Puglia in their Chianti. It's funny. They were producing more Chianti than they could from the acreage they owned. Ooops.

James

[JoeT62]

Re: 95% of Italian Olive oil is not

That said, a winery (Folinari I think) was fined a few years ago for putting too many cheap grapes from Puglia in their Chianti. It's funny. They were producing more Chianti than they could from the acreage they owned. Ooops.

James

Reminds me of the old lawyer joke where a 42 year old attorney gets visited by Death who informs him that after a long life, his time was up. "Long life???" he cries, "but I'm only 42 years old!!"

Death responds: "But according to your billable hours you are 103."