How to choose olive oil: 5 tips to follow
How to choose a quality olive oil? Olive oil is a must in Mediterranean cuisine and even more in the Tuscan one. Surely you too every day use it to enhance, flavor or cook your dishes. But are you really sure that the olive oil you use is a quality oil? Do you know how to choose the olive oil for your kitchen? Unfortunately every day we hear about some scandals involving olive oil, so try to be careful. Here are our tips to help you to choose olive oil and put the best on your table.
Podere il Casale in Pienza (Tuscany) produces extra virgin olive oil for almost 30 years and this year the olive harvest began with the end of the grape harvest, in the first days of October. Near Pienza, in Tuscany, olive trees are still planted according to ancient traditions and in our farm the harvest is done by hand, as it once was. We are lucky because our olive trees are in an excellent location, approximately 500 meters above sea level. In our olive oil we do not use any chemical agent and the early harvesting of the olives is important to give our oil that wonderfully fruity flavor accompanied by a soft piquant note.
How to choose the olive oil: 5 tips to follow
1) Avoid the supermarket low cost olive oil
If you find on supermarket shelves an extra virgin olive oil sold for a few euro be on the lookout! We know that to produce a quality product you have to work really hard and we advise you not to get duped by low prices because they often hide poor quality oils. We invite you to visit the producers directly. Visit us and ask to taste our olive oil, you’ll see immediately the difference! Pay close attention also to the labels: beware of unclear labels, with small and cryptic information written on the origin of products. Buy only olive oils that clearly indicate the place of production, the production process and the characteristics of the product.
2) Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the best
There is no doubt: the extra virgin olive oil is the best. Do you know why? Because it has the lower degree of acidity than the other olive oils. It’s absolutely forbidden that extra virgin olive oil are added to other oils or mixtures of oils. Simply the extra virgin olive oil is extracted by pressing the olives with a maximum of 1% acidity. If you have the chance, choose an extra virgin olive oil from the farmer. Podere il Casale in Pienza is at your disposal for any information.
3) Choose Organic Olive Oil
The great use of pesticides is one of the threats to be avoided. That’s why you have to choose an organic extra virgin olive oil. Organic farming does not use toxic substances that inevitably end up in your oil. In organic farming there are strict rules on olive oil production and for this reason organic olive oil does not contain traces of pesticides. Moreover the great producers of olive oil can be used chemicals to correct or hide the acidity.
Choose a biological oil coming if possible from small organic farms. Our farm in Pienza, Podere il Casale use organic farming since 1991 and our extra virgin olive oil, like all products of our farm is certified organic. Come and visit us and discover our farm. Our aim is let you touch the real tuscan tradition and let you see how we make our products.
4) Choose DOP or IGP Olive Oil
All products DOP (Protected Denomination of Origin) or IGP (Protected Geographic Indication) must comply with a specification very strict. If you really want to play it safe, choose an extra virgin olive oil DOP or IGP. The disciplinary contains rules on cultivation, harvesting and packaging and must be strictly adhered to.
Podere Casale produces Tuscan IGP olive oil with our organic olives.
5) Choose cold pressed olive oil
The last advice to follow to a higher quality of olive oil is to choose a cold-pressed olive oil. But what does it means? It means that during the pressing operation and extraction of olive oil the temperature should never exceed 30 ° C. In this way the olive oil properties are not altered and the product will express the most of its features.
Keep in mind our tips on how to choose a quality olive oil, and remember, the best is the extra virgin – organic – DOP or IGP – cold pressed olive oil. The extra virgin olive oil of Podere il Casale meets all these requirements! We are proud of our production and we put great attention into our work every day to offer you a high quality product. We invite you to taste our new olive oil or to come directly to the farm to taste it on a good “bruschetta”. Come and visit us is the best way to realize and touch everything that we suggested you in this article.
